NBC picks up ‘A.D.: Beyond the Bible,’ continues franchise started on History
What we have apparently learned today from the world of television is something rather interesting. If the ratings are big enough, you can make a sequel to almost anything … including The Bible. That’s right: One of the most-popular books of all time, and a religious document to millions of people, is now getting a follow-up to its original miniseries from the History Channel.
This new project is being referred to as “A.D.: Beyond the Bible,” and it will once again be executive-produced by the team of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. This project follows the story of what happens following the days of Jesus’ death, and how his teachings began to spread through that part of the ancient world. Expect plenty of Rome in this chapter of the story, along with plenty of battles.
What we find pretty interesting / entertaining about the statement confirming this news from NBC head Robert Greenblatt is that he knew from the get-go of “The Bible” that his network needed to get into the miniseries business (given the huge ratings for the original), and that he still found a way to name-drop “The Voice” even when talking about a tent-pole of Christianity:
“I followed the development process of ‘The Bible’ closely with Mark and knew that the story was far from over after Christ’s Crucifixion. In fact, what happened in the aftermath – which is essentially the beginning of Christianity – is utterly fascinating. The day after ‘The Bible’ premiered, I told Mark we were on board with no hesitation for the follow-up miniseries. This will be attention-getting in every way, and we’re proud to continue our association with Mark which has just grown exponentially from ‘The Voice.'”
So here is the question that we have: Given the success of the original, how far do Burnett and Downey take this? If the new project is popular, do you start airing shows about the Crusades, the Renaissance era, or the American Revolution? Is your final special about people with flying cars practicing Christianity? We have no clue, but if there is ever a special entitled “The Bible Strikes Back,” we’d be game to watch. We’ll also be curious to see if the same sort of conspiracy theories come out about this miniseries that were there the first time around when “The Bible” aired.
Photo: NBC