‘The Chosen’ the series about the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God, has permanently severed its ties with Angel Studios, the production studio that created global box-office successful film ‘The Sound of Freedom’, and the distributor of the globally successful animation, ‘The King of Kings’.
Co-creator of the series, Dallas Jenkins made the announcement is a recent livestream on YouTube.
Kickstarted in 2021, ‘The Chosen’ series was initially released on YouTube before the series creators entered into a distribution agreement with Angel Studios – which saw the later begin the distribution of the series’ first three seasons.
However, in 2023, ‘The Chosen’ entered a private arbitration with Angel Studios over ‘multiple, significant contract violations, a lawsuit that was ruled overwhelmingly in favour of ‘The Chosen’ team.
Currently, the series is now being distributed by Prime Video.
“Angel Studios appealed that decision as is their right, that was expected, and just last week, we got the fortunate news that three independent arbitrators reviewed the case in-depth and independently and all independently upheld the original decision,” said Jenkins.
“So, this arbitration case is officially terminated forever, essentially. And so, this was wonderful news that we were able to kind of put that episode behind us.”
At the initial time of the split in 2024, Angel Studios CEO, Neal Harmon who said the studio was honoured to have been instrumental in the founding of and the unbelievable growth of the series said they were sad that ‘The Chosen’ chose to terminate its agreement with the studio, expressing hope that it will restored someday in the future.
“Our long hours of hard work over the last eight years by teams of programmers marketers, translators, licensing experts and innovators have helped it become the worldwide success that it is today.”
‘The Chosen’ have found funding from the Come and See Foundation, a non-profit organization that funds production costs, aids in translation efforts and ensures the series remains available for free through ‘The Chosen App’ as well as future projects.
Jenkins commended Angel Studio for its support in kickstarting the biblical drama, and congratulated it in its ongoing projects noting, “I’ll always be forever grateful to Angel Studio for their role in all of that, I love these guys over there, and I congratulate them on some of their projects that they have been distributing that have had a lot of success,; and so I bear no ill will towards Angel Studios, but we’re no longer with them.”
