Faith Narratives Gain Traction in Hollywood With Amazon’s ‘House of David’

Samuel (Stephen Lang) annoints David as King, in "House of David." Amazon Studios

Commentary

Most people know the story of David and Goliath. It’s an epic tale of a shepherd boy vanquishing a giant with nothing more than a pebble and sling, putting him on a path to become the most famous king of Israel. The story has war, politics, fracturing kingdoms, powerful seers, an underdog hero, and of course, a giant—making the biblical story akin to “Lord of the Rings” or “Game of Thrones.”

It’s no doubt that Amazon had the same thoughts when it debuted its new series “House of David” in February.

At a glance, the series trailer might trigger sour memories of “Rings of Power” and “Wheel of Time.” Both shows received substantial criticism from their intended fan bases—accusations of “woke” politics and a blatant disregard for the source material being the primary complaints. Seeing Amazon take on a revered Bible story would understandably invoke cynicism, especially among Christians.

But “House of David” is anything but woke and disrespectful. Although dialogue and scenes that aren’t in the Bible are added for sake of television, it stakes itself firmly on the biblical account and refuses to shy away from themes of strength, faith, obedience, consequence, and God’s overwhelming power.

So what changed at Amazon? Well, it didn’t happen overnight. Like pebbles starting an avalanche, “House of David” is just the latest example of an attitude shift toward faith-based stories.

The hit show “The Chosen” was the first pebble. Crowdfunded by fans and helmed by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, the deeply human show about Jesus and His disciples grew from a few loaves and fish to a worldwide phenomenon.

In 2023, Lionsgate acquired sub-licensing distribution rights, and talk started about a Bible Cinematic Universe. At a fan convention last year for “The Chosen,” Jenkins confirmed five spin-off shows, including a direct sequel and stories about Moses and Joseph.

“The Chosen” isn’t the only pebble rolling. Angel Studios is using the same crowdfunding model to breathe life into faith and family projects that would never have graced a Hollywood writers’ room. Fantasy and conservative shows such as “The Wingfeather Saga” and “Tuttle Twins” are in their second and third seasons, and “Sound of Freedom” swept the box office during its theatrical release.

The success has caught Hollywood’s attention, and “Yellowstone” actor Neal McDonough said on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News that networks are begging studios for more “faith-based” content.

Until recently, Hollywood has largely overlooked or avoided faith projects. Some may point to an ideological bias, but a more tangible reason is a rocky track record. Even among Christians, faith projects had a reputation of being low quality and inauthentic, resulting in poor financial success.

“I actually think it is quite a challenge to present this material in this format. We’ve seen many years—decades—where there weren’t as many compelling portrayals,” Ryan Swanson, one of the three screenwriters for “The Chosen,” told me in an email. He said that the show brought awareness to content that studios previously didn’t know how to make.

“The people green-lighting budgets need to know there’s a chance of success. The best indicator is what worked, and ‘The Chosen’ worked,” he said.

“House of David” acts as an unofficial cousin to “The Chosen.” Although not directly involved, Jenkins is a large investor in the Wonder Project, which produced the series. Jesse Stone, who is the biblical expert for “The Chosen,” is consulting on the scripts, and Swanson is a consulting producer.

Launched in December 2023, the Wonder Project is led by Kelly Merman Hoogstraten (a former Netflix and YouTube executive) and Jon Erwin, who’s known for popular faith projects such as “Jesus Revolution” and “I Can Only Imagine.”

“I believe entertainment sits upstream from culture,” Hoogstraten said in a press release. The Wonder Project studio will tell stories that “restore hope in things worth believing in—family, community, God, and America.”

According to Swanson, the story of David has been Erwin’s passion for “many, many years.”

“Jon Erwin and I sat in an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, for 24 hours and discussed how we could introduce an audience to this world with all its intrigue, with all its characters that ultimately make the story so compelling,” he told me.

Erwin told “Variety” that Hollywood studios are “realizing there’s an inherent gap between their knowledge of content and their knowledge of this audience.”

“We’re going to build a bridge between those two worlds,” he said.

To its credit, Amazon’s been building its half of the bridge. In order to connect with the faith audience, the company hired Traci Blackwell, an outspoken believer, as a senior creative executive. Blackwell then connected Amazon with Jenkins within her first week on the job. The introduction led to an agreement that would make Amazon Video the exclusive third-party home of “The Chosen” and possibly the home of the Bible Cinematic Universe.

“We knew that we needed to go out and find experts [in the faith audience], so our first hire was Traci,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television for Amazon MGM Studios, in an interview with Jenkins.

Blackwell said in the same interview: “I truly believe that a huge part of the reason I was brought to Amazon was to not just work on this kind of content but to bring [‘The Chosen’] to the service. So this is a mission. I’m on an assignment from God doing this work.”

For both “The Chosen” and “House of David,” Amazon is adamant about leaving the creative decisions with the showrunners.

“We said we don’t want creative control,“ Sanders said of both shows. ”You all have an expertise. You have a voice. You know what you’re doing. We just want to help you with resources.”

And the pebbles continue to roll. “House of David” actor Michael Iskander, who plays David, said that he pursued the role because of “The Chosen.” A believer himself, Iskander is firm about adhering to the biblical text.

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Would God be happy with this?’ Not, ‘Would the people be happy with this?’” he said in an interview.

“House of David” opens with a single question: “Can one stone change the course of history?” In the case of David, the answer is yes. A single pebble brought down Goliath and raised up David as the king of Israel and ancestor to Jesus Christ.

In a much smaller sense, Christians have been up against the media giants for years, and a few small stones—crowdfunded projects and skilled creators—started an avalanche of quality, faithful Christian entertainment, with much more on the horizon.

Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.