New Trailer For CG Feature ‘The King of Kings’ Reveals All-Star Cast And Stylized Biblical Settings
Angel Studios, a faith-based distribution and production company based in Provo, Utah, released a new trailer today for its upcoming Biblical-themed animated feature, The King of Kings, based on Charles Dickens’ posthumously-published story about Jesus Christ.
The trailer offers glimpses of the film’s framing device, which features a young Dickens (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) and his wife Catherine (Uma Thurman) attempting to placate their rambunctious children during a stage production of A Christmas Carol. The fabled English author narrates “the greatest story ever told” as a bedtime story, which soon entrances his offspring and their fluffy cat, Willa, in tales of Christ and the New Testament.
Vignettes of Biblical scenes appear around the children, and then magically transport members of the Dickens family to Biblical times. Scenes include depictions of Christ (Oscar Isaac) recruiting his apostle Peter (Forest Whitaker) by walking on water; Christ’s Sermon on the Mount; scenes with Herrod (Mark Hamill), Caphias (Ben Kingsley), and Pontius Pilate (Pierce Brosnan) persecuting Christ; and depictions of Christ’s crucifixion.
Seong-ho ‘Jay’ Jang, a veteran vfx supervisor with over 25 years of experience, is making his feature animation directorial debut with this film. The primary animation studio that is credited for the film is South Korea’s Mofac Animation. Jang also co-wrote the script with Rob Edwards, whose credits include Disney’s Treasure Planet (2002) and The Princess and the Frog (2009).
Jang is quoted:
For the past 2,000-plus years, the story of Jesus has been told and retold in countless ways across virtually every country on the planet. This is a deeply personal story to all of us on the production crew, and we know it resonates with so many around the world. The added joy of this little-known iteration is that you see the story unfold not only from Charles Dickens’ unique literary perspective, but through his son Walter’s eyes — which ultimately provides young viewers with even greater access and understanding of who Jesus was and all that he represents.
Angel Studios acquired distribution of the film last November. The studio has previously released animated television series including science fiction and fantasy titles Tuttle Twins, and The Wingfeather Saga, and Young David based on Old Testament writings.
The studio is best known for its Christian-themed live-action releases (notably the Jim Caviezel political thriller Sound of Freedom and the New Testament TV series The Chosen). The company was initially founded as Vidangel, whose business model was to edit Hollywood films and make available alternative versions without “objectionable” content. Disney and Warner Bros. successfully sued Vidangel and were awarded nearly $10 million in 2020.
The King of Kings will be released in U.S. theaters on April 11, 2025.
In September, Light of The World, a 2d-style, Biblical-themed feature based on the New Testament book of the Apostle John, is scheduled for release.