Mel Gibson received media attention earlier this month when it was announced that Jim Caviezel would not be reprising his role as Jesus in the sequel to The Passion of the Christ.
Instead, Finnish actor Jaako Otonen will play the role in the long-awaited film The Resurrection of Christ, scheduled to be released in two parts from Good Friday 2027.
The reason Gibson decided not to recast Caviezel is simple: chronology. The “Person of Interest” star has grown too old over the past two decades to play Jesus in a movie that comes just three days after the crucifixion.
But until the release of “The Resurrection,” many people didn’t know anything about Otonen – and probably still don’t. Here are some of the roles he is best known for.
last kingdom
Otonen’s biggest role to date has been playing the warrior Warland in Season 5 of Netflix’s hit series The Last Kingdom.
The show is a British historical drama based on Bernard Cornwall’s series of novels, The Saxon Tales. The show aired from 2018 to 2022 and told the story of a Saxon nobleman who was captured and raised by the Danes after his family was murdered.
Otonen’s role as Woland did not appear until the final season of the series. He was portrayed as a mercenary and manipulative schemer, often helping to orchestrate smuggling crimes and assassination plots.
According to Common Sense Media, the series contains gore, profanity, and sexually explicit content.
vikings: valhalla
The 36-year-old Finnish celebrity played Johan in the first season of Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla.
The show, which will air its third and final season in 2024, is a follow-up to the series Vikings, which was created by Jeb Stewart and originally premiered on the History Channel.
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The show centers on the growing tensions between the descendants of the Vikings and the indigenous Britons, with infighting between the Norsemen over the pagan-Christian conflict.
Like “The Last Kingdom,” Common Sense Media reports that the series contains graphic violence, explicit language, and sexual content.
How to cook a bear
Otonen stars in the new Sweden-based Disney+ series “To Cook a Bear,” playing Lupe.
The drama is a six-episode historical thriller set in a remote village in northern Sweden in 1852 and centers on a priest, his family, and his adopted son.
The film series, based on Michael Niemi’s novel of the same name, tells the story of a runaway boy and a priest who team up to search for a murderous bear in the nearby wilderness.
IMDb states that the series contains “mild” sexual content, “moderate” profanity, and “severe” violence.
CBN News requested an interview with Mr. Otonen.
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