Mel Gibson's Resurrection of the Christ recasts lead roles

Mel Gibson has recast Jesus for his Passion of the Christ Sequel.

The Lethal Weapon star directed the 2004 original and he's been busy working on a two-part follow-up - titled The Resurrection of the Christ - and it has now emerged Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen will replace Jim Caviezel in the lead role, while Mariela Garriga will take over the part of Mary Magdalene from Monica Bellucci.

In addition, Kasia Smutniak is replacing Maia Morgenstern as Mary, Peter is being played by Pier Luigi Pasino, and Riccardo Scamarcio will star as Pontius Pilate. Rupert Everett will also appear an unspecified small but important role.

The Resurrection of the Christ takes place three days after Jesus' Crucifixion on Good Friday and a source told Variety: "It made sense to recast the whole film.

“They would have had to do all this CGI stuff, all this digital stuff — de-aging and all that — that would have been very costly."

The movies will be released just 40 days apart with the first installment due on Good Friday on March 26, 2027 and the second following on Ascension Day on May 6, 2027.

Gibson has been working on the sequel for many years and back in 2022, he spoke about the difficulties he was facing in his attempts to bring the story to the big screen.

During an appearance on EWTN's The World Over YouTube show, he explained: "Well it's a huge subject, and it’s not a linear narrative so that in order to have it mean something and resonate for almost anybody that watches it ...

"You have to juxtapose the central event that I’m trying to tell with everything else around it in the future, in the past, and in other realms, and that’s kind of getting a little sci-fi out there.

"It's a big story, it's a difficult concept and it's taken me a long time to focus and find a way to tell that story and really delivers to someone who may not know anything about the central story ... "

Gibson went on to reveal he had two finished scripts and was struggling to choose between them.

He added: "I've got two scripts ... so I got the pair of them and they're both good ...

"Plus you have to add your own mojo to it ... and there's a lot of material to draw from, believe me."

The movie star elaborated on his script issues during a live event with Jenni Falconer in October 2022, revealing one of the scripts is "very structured" and the other is "like an acid trip".

He explained: "It is such a massive undertaking that you can't do it lightly and you can't do it quickly. You have to really consider what you have to show in order to be poignant ... It's going to be a real jigsaw puzzle to do and I have two scripts. And one of them is very structured and a very strong script and more what you would expect.

"The other is like an acid trip because you're going into other realms and stuff. You're in hell. It's like you're watching the angels fall. It's crazy."