Netflix's American Jesus Update Provided by Millarworld

By Cameron Bonomolo

American Jesus is risen at Netflix. Creator Mark Millar's Millarworld announced Monday filming has started on the latest comic book adaptation from Netflix, behind Millar's Jupiter's Legacy and the in-development Supercrooks and The Magic Order. The official Twitter account for the Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator announced the start of production in Mexico with director Everardo Gout (The Forever Purge, Luke Cage), who serves as co-showrunner with Leopoldo Gout (Instinct, Molly's Game). In the multilingual Netflix Original streaming series, a 12-year-old boy learns he's returned as Jesus Christ in a final effort to save mankind and must step into his destiny.

"The American Jesus Netflix series starts shooting today in Mexico, based on the book by @mrmarkmillar & @PeterGrossArt," Netflix-owned Millarworld tweeted Monday. "Our best to our friends @LeopoldoGout, @everardogout and all the cast!" 

Netflix has yet to announce the cast of American Jesus. Previously surfaced character descriptions for series leads Jodie and Sarah described Jodie as "a seemingly normal teenager until a freak accident makes him think otherwise. He is not pathologically shy, but introverted. He is also a great storyteller, a trait he uses to entertain his friends." The role of Sarah is "a beautiful and brave woman. She is Jodie's mother and she protects him a lot, although she doesn't know what she is protecting him from."

Based on the Dark Horse comic originally published as Chosen, Netflix announced the six-episode series in 2018 when announcing a slate that included the since-canceled superhero drama Jupiter's Legacy and Millarworld films Empress and Huck. 

"I'd had the idea for American Jesus: Chosen rattling around in my head for a long time. I grew up in a religious part of a religious country, and this still plays a big part in my adult life — whether it's going to Mass on Sundays or sending my daughter to Catholic school," Millar writes in "The Gospel According to Millar and Gross," included in the American Jesus: Chosen trade paperback. "That notion of Catholicism you see in movies with nuns beating the sh-t out of people is absolutely nothing like Catholic life for 99.9% of Scottish Catholics."

Millar added, "I really have nothing but happy memories of growing up as a Catholic, and I wanted to do a book about faith that wasn't about child-molesting priests or all the usual sh-t you get when we liberals write stories about the Church. I wanted to write something about the Church without taking the piss out of it, and writing something about Jesus that wasn't judgmental or mocking." 

American Jesus is now in production for Netflix.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of