HBO dropped the first teaser trailer for The Young Pope starring Oscar nominee Jude Law before the premiere of the sci-fi series Westworld. The series, centering around a fictional Pope from America, comes from BAFTA winning director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) and is executive produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Mario Gianani, Caroline Benjo, Carole Scotta, Simon Arnal, and John Lyons. Law plays Pope Pius XIII and Diane Keaton co-stars as Sister Mary, an American nun residing in Vatican City.
Season one will consist of 10 episodes, all directed by Sorrentino. The series is a Sky, HBO, and Caanl + production and will premiere in 2017.
The Plot: The Young Pope tells the controversial story of the beginning of PIUS XIII’s Pontificate. Born Lenny Belardo, he is a complex and conflicted character, so conservative in his choices as to border on obscurantism, yet full of compassion towards the weak and poor. He is a man of great power who is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications to his authority. During the series, Belardo will face losing those closest to him and the constant fear of being abandoned, even by his God. He is, however, not afraid of undertaking the millennial mission of defending that same God and the world representing Him.
Describing the series, Paolo Sorrentino said, “The clear signs of God’s existence. The clear signs of God’s absence. How faith can be searched for and lost. The greatness of holiness, so great as to be unbearable when you are fighting temptations and when all you can do is to yield to them. The inner struggle between the huge responsibility of the Head of the Catholic Church and the miseries of the simple man that fate (or the Holy Spirit) chose as Pontiff. Finally, how to handle and manipulate power in a state whose dogma and moral imperative is the renunciation of power and selfless love towards one’s neighbour. That is what THE YOUNG POPE is about.”
Watch The Young Pope trailer:
