MEL GIBSON DROPS 'PASSION OF THE CHRIST' SEQUEL BOMBSHELL IN TORONTO
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U.S. President Donald Trump may have tapped Mel Gibson as one of the saviours of Hollywood, but the Oscar winner is handling much of the post-production on his upcoming sequel to The Passion of the Christ in Toronto.
Gibson, 70, made the revelation during an onstage Q&A at Fan Expo in Toronto on Saturday.
“I’m editing and doing all the post-production work here in Toronto,” he said of the film, which he directed and co-wrote with his Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace. “It’s not one film, it’s two films. I don’t think it’s what anyone expects. But it doesn’t deviate from the truth and essence of the story … The subject matter is so big and it’s such an impossible event to even comprehend … It’s complicated, but hopefully it will be clear.”
Titled The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One and due in theatres May 6, 2027, the long-overdue sequel was shot overseas and will focus on the resurrection of Jesus.
Gibson said the movie “is bigger” than 2004’s The Passion of the Christ , which was a worldwide hit at the box office with more than $612 million.
“We built Jerusalem and parts of Damascus and little bits of Egypt,” he said. “It’s a far-ranging epic that spans continents and countries … We managed to shoot these two films in 135 days, which for something like that is pretty impossible.”
Gibson is working on the film in Toronto despite being named last year by Trump, along with his fellow actors Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, as a “Special Ambassador” to help bring business lost to “foreign countries” back to Hollywood.
“It is my honour to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK — BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE! These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”
Gibson pledged to examine different ways to incentivize productions to stay put in California.
‘Lethal Weapon 5’ still in the works
Elsewhere during his panel, Gibson continued to tease a fifth instalment in his Lethal Weapon series.
Despite there not being a new entry in almost 30 years, Gibson told attendees a script is in the can that will see his character Martin Riggs and Danny Glover’s Roger Murtaugh return for another film, which he’ll also direct.
“(Director Richard) Donner, before he passed away (in 2020), had started work on a fifth instalment. It was pretty good. He came to me and said, ‘Kid, if I croak, you’ll take over.’ I said, ‘Shut up, you’re not going anywhere.'”
After Donner’s death in 2020, Gibson sat down with Richard Wenk (the screenwriter behind the Equalizer trilogy) to finish the script.
“We’ve made the best one yet,” Gibson said. “It’s just caught in corporate hell — somewhere between Paramount, Warner Bros. and the deep blue sea … But we want to get Danny up and running again.”
Gibson apologizes for ‘thoughtless idiocy’
Following his appearance at Fan Expo, Gibson came under fire for appearing to mock an ASL interpreter while walking on stage.
Videos shared to social media showed Gibson making hand gestures behind the back of a deaf interpreter.
“Always disappointing to see my language mocked. We work hard to get our language recognized and be taken seriously,” one critic wrote.
Later, other users shared a video of Reacher star Alan Ritchson shaking the hand of the ASL interpreter after his Q&A wrapped at Fan Expo.
Gibson later apologized , calling his behaviour “thoughtless idiocy.”
“Sometimes when you get pushed out on a stage in a spotlight, your mind is all over the place, and sometimes spontaneous thoughtless idiocy is displayed,” Gibson said in a statement to Variety . “There was no intended maliciousness attached, and I certainly apologize to anyone who was upset by it.”
2026-09-01T18:54:15Z