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SALT LAKE CITY — Easter Sunday, NBC will premiere a new, 12-episode series based on events in the Bible that occurred after Jesus Christ’s death, NBC reported.
“The immediate aftermath of Christ's death had a massive impact on his disciples, his mother, Mary, and key political and religious leaders of the era, completely altering the entire world in an instant,” according to the NBC website.
KSL’s Dave McCann recently traveled to Morocco where the television series was filmed.
“'A.D.' starts just before the death of Christ and its main story is what happens to everyone after Jesus leaves,” Pedro Lloyd Gardiner, who plays Christ’s disciple Matthew, told McCann.
Gardiner, along with Adam Levy, who portrays Peter, showed McCann around the set and explained a few things viewers can expect to see in the series.
The series starts just before Christ’s death, Gardiner said.
“Peter is running to see what happens to Jesus and he ends up here breathless,” Gardiner said as he described the first scene of episode one. “And he looks out, and of course, as an actor, you have to imagine this, and he sees there is two crosses up, and then he just sees the third cross coming up and he knows his best friend has been crucified.”
After Christ’s death, his apostles flee from Jerusalem for safety and meet together in a “safe house,” Gardiner said.
“I think what we’ve been able to achieve with this series is you have all the religious moments that everyone learns about with Jesus dying and resurrecting, but we really are finding the human element of these guys,” Gardiner said.
Directed by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, "A.D." comes on the heels of a “windfall of films featuring faith.”
To learn more about A.D., tune in for KSL’s primetime report, “Finding Faith in Prime Time" Sunday at 4 p.m. after General Conference.
To learn more about the characters or view sneak peaks of the series, visit NBC.
A.D. will premiere Sunday at 8 p.m. local time.
April 12, a companion series titled “Beyond A.D.” will premiere on NBC. “Beyond A.D.” will “serve as a discussion platform for fans, cast, producers, and special celebrity and musical guests.”
Contributing: Dave McCann
