😮 MEL GIBSON’S NEW JESUS HAS FINALLY BEEN REVEALED — AND FANS ARE STUNNED BY THE FIRST LOOK. K2

Jaakko Ohtonen as Jesus in ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’.Credit: Elise Lockwood

He has risen.

On Thursday, Lionsgate marked the end of filming on Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ by releasing the first look at the long-awaited follow-up to 2004’s The Passion of the Christ.

In the above image, Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen officially steps in as Jesus, taking over the role from original star Jim Caviezel. EW previously reported that Caviezel, 57, would have needed to be de-aged for the movie, which is set three days after Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday, and so recasting was the easier option.

Additionally, the part of Mary Magdalene, originally portrayed by Monica Bellucci, is now being played by Mariela Garriga, the Cuban actress known for costarring in both Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

“I’m deeply grateful to my incredibly talented cast and crew for pouring their hearts into this production. Together, we created something powerful,” Gibson said in a statement. “This film represents a major part of my life’s work, and it has demanded everything of me as a filmmaker and as an artist. This is far more than a film to me. It’s a mission I’ve carried for over twenty years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history. Reuniting with many of my original collaborators from The Passion of the Christ — true masters of their craft — allowed us to bring this story to the screen exactly as I envisioned it.”

Produced and financed by Gibson for $30 million, Passion of the Christ grossed $610 million at the worldwide box office. Until 2024, it was both the highest-grossing R-rated film of all-time in the U.S. and the highest-grossing independent film. The Lethal Weapon star previously said the script for the sequels is an “acid trip.”

“I’ve never read anything like it,” he told Joe Rogan last year. “There’s some crazy stuff. In order to tell the story properly you have to start with the fall of the angels. You’re in another realm. You need to go Hell. You need to go to Sheol.”

He continued, “You got to have his origin. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. It’s going to require a lot of planning. I’m not sure I can pull it off. It’s super ambitious, but I’m going to take a crack at it… It’s about trying to find a way in that’s not cheesy or obvious. It’s almost like a magic trick. [The story] goes from the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”