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Twenty-six years ago, DreamWorks released the starry animated musical “The Prince of Egypt,” which chronicles the life of biblical figure Moses, to both critical and commercial success. The film, featuring music by eventual “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz and the voices of Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes, is widely regarded as a masterpiece — yet the biblical animated film genre was seemingly abandoned after the turn of the millennium.
Enter “The King of Kings,” Angel Studios’ effort to revive the faith-based children’s movie in theaters. The film, which stars Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, Mark Hamill as King Herod, Forest Whitaker as Peter and Ben Kingsley as High Priest Caiaphas, is cleverly framed as famed author Charles Dickens (Kenneth Branagh) and his wife Catherine (Uma Thurman) seek to teach their King Arthur-obsessed son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis) about the greatest king of all.
Loosely based on Dickens’ “The Life of Our Lord,” “The King of Kings” has already broken the opening box office record set by “The Prince of Egypt,” pulling in over $14.6 million in presales alone ahead of its release this weekend.
Angel Studios’ Jordan Harmon isn’t surprised by the promising numbers — after all, Angel’s unique pay-it-forward and crowdfunding “Angel Guild” models, both in full effect here, are precisely what made 2023’s “The Sound of Freedom” a runaway success.
“It’s discouraging to think that people haven’t been fulfilling this massive of an audience for that long in terms of the animated space,” Angel Studios co-founder Jordan Harmon tells Variety. “We less look at things like, ‘What are we missing inside of our slate?’ We look at what the Guild is really resonating with. I think the Guild naturally finds things before even the executives could know that it’s becoming a pent-up demand for the world.”
When Angel acquired the project hailing from director Seong-ho Jang in November 2024, Harmon says there was “no question” that it would receive a theatrical release timed to Easter and the Holy Week leading up to it.
“This movie is really ‘The Passion’ for kids. We did an early screening, and I watched multiple kids walk out with tears on their face,” Harmon says. “They’re having this massively fundamental, moving moment inside of the cinema and its communal experience, and they’re feeling so much power and emotion that they’re getting this beautiful relationship developed even more towards a love towards Christ. I truly believe this film has the potential to bless millions of kids’ lives where this becomes, for lack of a better term, a core memory.”
Hamill, who voices tyrannical leader King Herod in “The King of Kings,” says he was drawn to the role not only because of his Roman Catholic upbringing and affinity for films like 1961’s live-action “King of Kings” with Jeffrey Hunter, but because of Herod’s deliciously evil persona.
“He’s a classic villain. He has a complete lack of empathy. He is sort of drunk with his own power, with that famous edict that all young male children be slaughtered under the age of two. I mean, classic sociopath,” he says. “I’d never get cast as King Herod if it was a live-action film. That’s more in the Victor Buono realm, where you have to be imposing physically and rotund and imperious, and all of that. One of the reasons voiceover is so appealing is they cast with their ears, not their eyes. If you can sound the part, that’s all they need.”
Hamill, who calls the film “a revelation,” says he believes it will bring in young viewers. “Children are going to find this enormously appealing, even if they aren’t drawn towards religious stories. This one has everything a great adventure should have, and yet it teaches such positive values: the idea of faith and selflessness and doing what’s right for the good of everyone, and not just yourself,” he says, adding that he’s hoping to find time to see it in theaters. “I’d love to see it in an audience with all grade schoolers. They’ll blow the roof off the joint!”
Angel Studios has leaned into the kid-friendly nature, offering a “Kids Go Free” promotion giving out one free kids ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket. “That’s been such a powerful campaign, because a lot of times parents, either they don’t have the resources, or if they do have the resources, they don’t have the time. You give them that little extra bump to where they can go,” Harmon says, adding that a children’s movie forced the Angel team to create new strategies to draw in a broader audience than their more adult-oriented content.
“A lot of Angel films historically have been more adult type movies. They’re heavier and more drama-based, so kids don’t attend those as much. That was a unique challenge,” Harmon says. “One that we think we conquered pretty well.”
