The trailer launched on Monday and quickly rose to No. 1 on YouTube‘s trending list, with nearly 1 million views in its first 24 hours.
The response caused director Dallas Jenkins to post on his Facebook page – “Whoa!”
The trailer reveals multiple scenes from the new season, including Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount and feeding the 5,000.
The first two episodes from the series debut in theaters on November 18 before transitioning to The Chosen app in December. The series is free to watch on the app.
Scheduled for seven seasons, the series tells the story of Jesus and the disciples. It is crowdfunded and has been viewed by an estimated 94.8 million people worldwide.
Giavani Cairo, who portrays Thaddeus, told Christian Headlines, “The stakes are a lot higher this season, and the disciples are faced with a lot of obstacles they were not faced with before while following Jesus that we really get into in Season 3.”
The runtime of the November 18 film is two hours and four minutes, according to The Chosen website. It will be in roughly 1,525 theaters.
Last year the holiday-themed Christmas with the Chosen grossed more than $14 million during its run – a record for its distributor, Fathom – and also broke the Fathom record for out-of-the-gate ticket sales (for the first 12 hours).
Groups of 25 or more can purchase tickets for the new Chosen movie now. Individual tickets go on sale on October 25.