Mel Gibson has finished principal filming on The Resurrection of the Christ, wrapping the two-part biblical epic in early May 2026 after a seven-month shoot in Italy. The long-awaited follow-up to The Passion of the Christ is now set for a spring 2027 theatrical release.

The project has been in Gibson’s hands for over two decades, and the scale reflects that wait. He co-wrote the screenplay with Randall Wallace and produced the film with Bruce Davey, while the cast brings back several of the most recognizable figures from the earlier movie. Jaakko Ohtonen plays Jesus Christ, Mariela Garriga portrays Mary Magdalene, Maia Morgenstern returns as Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Riccardo Scamarcio is back as Pontius Pilate. Rupert Everett and Kasia Smutniak are also among the cast.

The new film is being released in 2 parts, a choice that underlines how far Gibson has pushed the material beyond a single sequel. The dialogue spans Aramaic, English, Hebrew and Latin, keeping the production close to the liturgical texture that made the original film stand out when it arrived in 2004. That earlier movie became a global phenomenon and earned more than $600 million worldwide, giving Gibson both a commercial and artistic reason to return to the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

What makes the timing matter now is that the production has finally crossed its last major hurdle just as the release window comes into view. The planned rollout is aligned with Good Friday and Ascension Day, signaling that the studio is aiming to place the film squarely in the Christian calendar. In Touch Weekly summed up the milestone this way: “This Director Spent 22 Years Making His Most Personal Film, and It’s Finally Done.”

The tension around the project was never whether Gibson wanted to finish it. It was whether he could keep the scale, the language choices and the faith-centered ambition intact long enough to get it across the line. He has now done that, and the result is not a sequel in the casual sense but a two-chapter return to the story that defined one of the biggest religious films of the modern era.

With filming complete and the release date set for 2027, the next question is no longer whether The Resurrection of the Christ will arrive. It is whether Gibson can turn a project that took over two decades to build into a film event that matches the weight of the original.