Jim Caviezel’s ‘Passion of the Christ’ Replacement Finds a New Streaming Home After He Was Dropped From the Sequels

The messy production of Mel Gibson‘s long-awaited follow-up to The Passion of the Christ got even messier recently, when, after finally being green-lit and given a release date, it was revealed that star Jim Caviezel wouldn’t be returning to reprise his career-defining title role. Caviezel played Jesus in the original film, and was going to be digitally de-aged for the sequel, which is going to be split into two parts. But he was replaced by Jaakko Ohtonen, best known for his role as Wolland in Netflix’s The Last Kingdom. Caviezel has clearly identified his audience, and his QAnon leanings have only ostracized him more from mainstream Hollywood. However, even if they don’t see him as Jesus again, the faith-based demographic can look forward to watching Caviezel in the Biblical drama Paul, Apostle of Christ, which is set to debut on Netflix in December.

Caviezel plays Luke in the movie, alongside James Faulkner, who plays Paul. Directed by Andrew Hyatt, the movie was released theatrically in 2018, grossing a healthy $25 million against a reported budget of $5 million. Paul, Apostle of Christ earned mixed reviews, and is now sitting at a 47% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The platform’s consensus reads, “Paul, Apostle of Christ proves a well-intentioned yet disappointingly diffuse interpretation of a Bible story whose flashes of potential never come close to living up to the source material.” Like most faith-based movies, however, the film was embraced by audiences, who awarded it an A- grade on CinemaScore.

Mainstream Studios Have Made Inroads in the Faith-Based Market

Paul, Apostle of Christ was distributed by Affirm Films, a production banner that specializes in faith-based content and recently released the film Soul on Fire. In recent years, more and more mainstream studios have been trying to tap into this demographic, with the Amazon movie Sarah’s Oil having grossed over $5 million in five days of release. The flagbearer for faith-based films in recent years has been Angel Studios, as well as Dallas Jenkins and the filmmaking duo Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin. They’re responsible for the hit series The Chosen and House of David, respectively.

You can watch Paul, Apostle of Christ on Netflix beginning in December, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.