A unique telling of the life of Jesus Christ has made its way to the screen for the first time with The ion of the Christ to the more humorous Monty Python's Life of Brian and Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part 1. The latest film actually serves as an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Life of Our Lord, which was written as his own telling of Jesus' story for his children.

Originally written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Seong-ho Jang and translated by Rob Edwards, The King of Kings sees Dickens as a character in the story, frustrated by his rambunctious son Walter's disruption of his Christmas Carol recital. In an effort to connect with his son, Dickens takes Walter's obsession with King Arthur and the Round Table to tell him the tale of the "King of Kings", Jesus Christ. With an ensemble cast featuring Oscar Isaac, Kenneth Branagh and Pierce Brosnan, among others, The King of Kings has garnered generally positive reviews from critics and acclaim from audiences.

In honor of the movie's release, ScreenRant interviewed Rob Edwards and Mark Hamill to discuss The King of Kings. The writer opened up about his and Jang's process for adapting Dickens' original tale and why they both felt it was the best version of telling Jesus' story and offers a meaningful introduction to it for younger viewers. Edwards also offers a promidate on the franchise plans for his graphic novel, Defiant, and Hamill teases the fun to come from the next SpongeBob SquarePants movie.

The King Of Kings Team Were Moved By Its Fresh Take On The Jesus Tale

"...What I Think You Get Is This Great Way Of Telling The Story."

Charles Dickens' The Life of Our Lord is a unique entry in his bibliography, as it's one he wrote solely for his children and forbade from publication, with later generations also preventing this until the last of Dickens' children had ed. This novella would eventually make its way into the hands of writer/director Seong-ho Jang, who, Edwards recalls, immediately expressed the feeling "this is the best telling" of Christ's story, namely in that "it's not just the Nativity and Easter", but instead explores "his entire life".

Edwards went on to explain how one of the keys for him and Jang to unlock how best to adapt The King of Kings was "this great filter" of the Dickens patriarch telling his youngest son, Walter, the story of Christ, something the co-writer easily related to as the father of two sons himself. "I regularly was in the exact position that Dickens is in the beginning of the movie," Edwards explained, "like, 'Okay, kids, I've got a couple of Bible stories to tell you.' 'Oh God, dad, no, please, anything but. Can you tell me more about Spider-Man?'"

As this turned into further conversations with his children, like Dickens with Walter, about how things like The Matrix being inspired by other iconic sci-fi tales, Edwards also acknowledged that showing his children religious movies isn't always the easiest, particularly those about Christ himself. "A lot of times, by the time I get to show then any movie about Jesus, the last 30 minutes are brutal, we've gotta it," Edwards laughed. "By the time that happens, they're teenagers, and they've all kind of made their minds up about stuff, and sometimes they've moved on, and what's great about this is that you can show this to a kid and the kid will truly enjoy it, and hopefully mom, dad, granny, grandpa on the couch, everybody can truly enjoy the movie in the same way."

Hamill echoed many of Edwards' sentiments in reflecting on the way The King of Kings tells Christ's story, praising it for being "such an inspirational story that appeals to the better angels in our souls" as it explores the themes of "faith" and "selfishness", among other things. The BAFTA Award winner also went on to share his own love of the religious film genre going back to his childhood, in which he would find himself thinking, "Oh boy, there's miracles, that means there are special effects.

"I didn't get the feeling that it was a remake or copying anyone else," Hamill opined. "And who knew, from South Korea! This guy who directed it, Seong-ho Jang, he's really known for being a master of special effects, this is his first time as a director. The visuals are astonishing, it has an epic feel to it, and it's not like they fade away from Charles and Walter in London and go to the story. They are in the story, and that's what I thought was so strong was that Walter is able to observe all of these things in real time. It's just a clever way to involve the audience, and that's why I had a feeling, 'This will be very appealing to the younger audiences, at least.'"

Hamill also acknowledged that, while The King of Kings isn't the first to explore Christ's story, and is the third to share that name after the H.B. Warner silent movie classic and Jeffrey Hunter-starring 1961 hit, the reason the new one stands out is through the plot structure focusing on Dickens and his son, calling it "a revelation" and "so clever". He also praised Roman Griffin Davis for his performance as Walter, as well as his performance in the Stephen King adaptation, The Long Walk.

Edwards & Hamill Were Also Excited To Tackle Underexplored Historical Figures

"I'm A Research Geek..."

Through the life of Christ, a wide variety of names immediately come to the minds of those brought up with some kind of religious education or churchgoing, whether it be his caring mother and father, Mary and Joseph, or his Apostle-turned-traitor, Judas. For The King of Kings, Edwards was immediately excited at getting to "pour through the gospels" to round out the roster of characters in the film, denoting his being a "research geek" after working on the graphic novel series, Defiant.

You get a sense of the characters, who these people were, and then you research the times and get a sense of historically, what is the context of what is happening, why people are doing everything they're doing.

Two figures that Edwards was excited to get to explore in the film were that of Pontius Pilate, whom the co-writer feels "gets a bummer rap in the Bible", despite his efforts to "make good". The other was that of King Herod, whose family is the one responsible for Christ's crucifixion, and was voiced by Hamill in the film. Hamill was similarly intrigued by the prospect of playing Herod, who he knew to be "one of the more heinous figures in the Bible", including for "ordering the death of all male children", and wouldn't be a role he'd get to play in live-action.

"He's a power-mad, terrible person, obviously," Hamill expressed. "But I love the fact that, in voiceover, they don't cast with their eyes, they cast with their ears. And in voiceover, I discovered as far back as the Joker, 'Wow, I'm going to be able to play characters that I would never get to play on camera. I'm just physically not right for King Herod, or The Joker for that matter.' But it was a revelation to me, because when I wasn't getting the kind of interesting character parts I wanted to do, I moved to New York and did Broadway from the late '70s through the early '90s.

"It wasn't until I discovered voiceover," Hamill continued, "that I thought, 'Where's this been all my life? I should have been doing this from the get-go.' I did one animated series when I was a teenager, but then I didn't work again in voiceover for decades. And like I say, when I did The Joker, and it had such an impact, it just opened up a whole new world for me that I just loved because, like I say, you're going to get to play parts you would never get on camera."

When it came to how he went about crafting his version of Herod, Hamill pointed to Edwards and Jang's script as being one of the key tools. He did also point to a certain mentality he's retained across his various villain voiceover roles, in which "villains don't think of themselves as villains", even as they have "a sense of righteousness". Instead, as Hamill explained, audiences "abhor" a good villain because "they have no self-awareness".

It's like with The Joker, he just believes he's a genius that is unappreciated, so there's a real lack of self-awareness on his part. And one thing about villains is that they're never boring. They might enrage the audience or, in context, they are crucial to storytelling, and I enjoy playing protagonists. But to play the antagonist is just a thrill. As much as you like the applause and the cheers, if you do your job right as the villain, the audience should hate your guts, and that means you've done your job.

Edwards Brought A Few Lessons From His Time At Disney For The Film

"Make It Smart Enough For Kids And Fast Enough For Adults."

Prior to co-writing the animated religious epic, Edwards previously found success working with Disney on both animated and live-action projects, including co-writing Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and the recently released Captain America: Brave New World. When it came to developing The King of Kings, the writer pulled from some of the lessons learned from the House of Mouse, particularly when he was developing the 2009 animated fantasy hit.

"When we were doing Princess and The Frog, one thing that I did that was bad," Edwards chuckled, "was I was reading all the Reddit posts and all this stuff, and somebody was like, 'Oh, I'm 35, and I don't need a prince to walk me away. I'm making my own fairytales.' I took that, and I put it on the wall and I said, 'This is the person we're making this movie for.' We redesigned Tiana so that Tiana was that person. She's not looking for anything, she doesn't want grandkids, whatever. And it gave us a really great way of telling the story because, by the end, you're going to come to this magical thing and the person's going to get convinced."

We're going to take him through the greatest story ever told, and have him experience the miracles and have him get invested so that when the movie ends, he has changed, he has grown up from it.

As to how this relates to The King of Kings, Edwards recalled how, after reading Jang's early translation of his Korean manuscript, he wanted to "really push that Walter, from frame 1, does not want to hear the story", likening him to "every skeptic that's going to step into the movie theater", much like Tiana's own skepticism of the voodoo practices seen in The Princess and the Frog. "We're going to take him through the greatest story ever told, and have him experience the miracles and have him get invested so that when the movie ends, he has changed, he has grown up from it", Edwards shared.

This also led to Edwards recalling another key lesson learned at Disney and Pixar being "Make it smart enough for kids and fast enough for adults", thus ensuring that the story is "educat[ing] as you're going" and "giving historical context" for younger viewers. In allowing younger viewers to become well-informed on the characters and events of Christ's story, this allowed Edwards and Jang key moments for "actually slowing down to let the miracles go", such as the bread and fish tale from the Bible, while still making it "entertaining in every way that you can".

"Throughout the course of life, you see that there are some moments that are sped up, because we know very little about those times, but we can infer what's happening as Jesus becomes a better and better teacher," Edwards acknowledges. "So, that's the fun of it is, 'Can you make a movie that does that?'"

The co-writer also recalls a heartwarming moment he had during a screening of the film attended by "a bunch of kids and a bunch of adults", in which he sat towards the front of the theater and was observing the audience's reactions. He specifically recalled seeing "the kids with these saucer eyes", who were also talking to their accompanying adults and saying, "Oh my God, this is amazing".

They're just taking in the wonder of it all. Woo-hyung Kim's amazing cinematography, Jang's amazing storytelling, and they're truly enjoying it. In the end, they're all saying like, "Okay, when can we see this again?" Which is exactly what you want from this.

Edwards' Defiant Franchise Plans Are Still Alive & Well

"...I Have My Eyes On A Handful Of Directors..."

The past few years have been some of the busiest for Edwards, co-writing not only The King of Kings and the aforementioned Captain America: Brave New World, but also making his feature directorial debut with the animated comedy Sneaks, which hit theaters this past April. Edwards also launched his new graphic novel series, Defiant, which chronicled Robert Smalls' journey from escaping enslavement to rebelling against the Confederacy, including stealing a steamship and confronting various soldiers in enemy territory.

The good thing about it with the artists that are doing the comic book and everything, nobody is saying no. Everybody is saying, "Yes, please, when do we go?"

The four-part series, which launched in May 2024, is intended to branch out beyond the page onto the screen. Despite Edwards' dedication, though, he acknowledges it won't be the easiest road ahead, particularly as he and the creative team behind the graphic novel faced the same kind of pushback to Defiant as he and Jang did with The King of Kings, in which their genres created assumptions of intent for the material.

"People are like, 'Oh no, you're going to preach to me,'" Edwards expressed, "and you say, 'No, no, no, this is a story, and it is a story on par with the King Arthur legacy, and you will enjoy it as that. If you choose to believe at the end of it, you can. If you choose to just say, this was a great story. 'I can see how this is the greatest story ever told. Historical context was great.' Boom.' The same is true with slave narratives, where, a lot of times, people say, 'Oh, I don't want to see any more whips and chains, and please don't drag people through the mud, it's so painful to get through these stories. Please don't do that.'

"And I was saying to a lot of people as we were pitching it, 'No, no, this is inspirational. He starts off here, but he ends off here.'," Edwards continued. "And people were like, 'Eh, no, I just see mud and dust and pain.' So, the graphic novel lets me tell the story, a movie, on paper and tell the story the way it's supposed to be told, and people will hopefully see that and say, 'I get it. This is a really great telling of, once again, a story about a great man.'"

As to where the adaptation is at in its progress, Edwards did confirm Defiant will be a movie, and that he already has "my eyes on a handful of directors", one of whom he met with the night before our interview. "I had a great time talking to him, and I think the movie would be well-served if he came on," Edwards beamed. "The good thing about it with the artists that are doing the comic book and everything, nobody is saying no. Everybody is saying, 'Yes, please, when do we go?'".

In looking at the potential casting choices for Smalls, Edwards humorously acknowledged that Anthony Mackie "would be great" for the part after teaming with the star on the Captain America sequel and Sneaks. He did, however, also confirm that there "are a couple of other actors that we're looking at that I think would also be great", and compared the experience developing The King of Kings with Defiant.

Much like with King of Kings, when I actually wrote the script and people started reading it, it was amazing to see the reaction of great actors saying, "Oh, these are great parts. There are no small parts in this movie. This is just wonderful. Sign me up." I think the same will be true with Defiant...Once again, same with King of Kings, where, as the list was compiling of the amazing cast in this thing, it was like, "I don't know how you could cast this thing any better. I don't know who else is out there who's just as great as the cast is in this movie."

Edwards Was A "Huge Marvel Geek" Before ing Captain America: Brave New World

"...You Take It Seriously As A Fan."

Captain America: Brave New World proved to be a major undertaking for Edwards and the team around him, as it marked the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe subfranchise not led by Chris Evans. The movie also served as director/co-writer Julius Onah's first blockbuster project since the poorly received The Cloverfield Paradox and Edwards' first live-action movie after years of working in animation and on live-action TV shows in the '80s and '90s.

Reflecting on his experience co-writing the film, Edwards recalled one of the many lessons learned from his tenure at Disney and Pixar being, "Be a filmgoer first, be a filmmaker second", which then led to him starting his approach to the script "as a huge fan". He also compared his experience with it to that of King of Kings, in which he is a "fan of the Bible" and was thrilled to "get to help tell this story", while being similarly excited about "telling Sam Wilson's ascension into this amazing role".

This also led to him taking into consideration that "I know how people are going to respond to this, because I'm one of those people", and therefore sought to make Captain America: Brave New World "a movie that you can see over and over again, and enjoy more and more every time you do." One of his biggest objectives was to layer in a complex layer in which "three people believe that they are the lead character" and are "dead right", only for the movie's climax to show that "only Captain America's heart prevails in this moment".

Another goal of Edwards was to pay tribute to the first Captain America movie, The Original Avenger's, iconic moment of "I can do this all day", a quote that would become a key trademark of Chris Evans' Steve Rogers going forward, by giving Mackie's Sam Wilson his own kind of moment. This led to a unique parallel between his experience writing the film and Wilson becoming the new Captain America:

Sam's version is, "There is no second place here. I am not going to screw this up. I know what this means, not only to me, but to everybody." I'm the same. I sat down to type, I knew, "Don't blow this, make a movie that is deserving of being in the canon of the MCU."

The New SpongeBob Movie Is One Of Hamill's Most Fun Career Experiences

The Star Wars Vet Is Taking Over A Fan-Favorite Character For The Film

Looking beyond The King of Kings, Hamill was also excited to discuss his involvement in the The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, the next theatrical installment of the beloved Nickelodeon franchise. The Star Wars vet is taking over the role of The Flying Dutchman for the film, and couldn't be more thrilled with his experience making the animated sequel:

I have to tell you that I'm also the villain in The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. That's in December, and I'm telling you, I can't the last time I've had so much fun making a movie. If you have half the fun watching it that I did making it, you and your daughter are going to have a great time.

More About The King Of Kings (2025)

Just in time for Easter, an all-star voice-cast, led by Mark Hamill, Uma Thurman, and Pierce Brosnan bring us an animated film for the whole family - "King of Kings." Inspired by a Charles Dickens short story which he read yearly to his family at Christmas, the film follows Dickens, his son Walter, and their cat Willa as they become immersed in the story of Jesus. Dickens' short story wasn't published until 1934, decades after his death.

The King of Kings is now in theaters.