Ryan Swanson on 'The Chosen Adventures': 'We want to get the right messages across to kids'

What better way to teach children about Bible stories than through animation?

The idea came to filmmaker, director, writer and executive producer Ryan Swanson as he created the animation series, "The Chosen Adventures," which follows nine-year-old Abby and her best friend Joshua as they navigate life in the ancient city of Capernaum. Here, the children encounter a wise craftsman and teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, who changes the way they see the world.

When we interviewed Swanson at Midlothian, Texas on the set of the global hit series "The Chosen," of which he also serves as executive producer and writer. He explained to us how the idea of creating an animation series based on "The Chosen" originated.

He said, "Where did it start? Fortunately, we have this episode in season one where we have these two little kids who run into Jesus in their play space. And we were shocked to hear from parents and grandparents that their kids were pressing to play on an episode of 'The Chosen,' which is something we never really imagined.

"We just imagined that that episode would be a great opportunity for Jesus, effectively, to tell the camera what he was teaching, that he was teaching something new. We show his humanity and his love for kids. And it started a conversation between Derral (Eves), Dallas (Jenkins) and me about kids' programming and what we feel was missing from our experience.

"There were mysteries that the church gave us when we were kids, which we didn't know how to handle. We sometimes felt like we weren't good enough for the messages we were getting. And they also sometimes made us laugh because they were doing a thing to our nervous system - these big ideas, these huge events. And so, we needed a release.

"And it's always been 'The Chosen's' intention to tell this story infused with some humor. So, it was natural in that way to move on to animation. But none of us had ever had any experience doing animation, so we relied on our producer of 'The Chosen', Chris Juen, who has an extensive history in animation, and he made introductions to people like Sam Mitchell, our production designer and Real Effects and Brazen Entertainment, who are located here in Dallas and have outposts in California and in Montreal.

"So, it was a learning process for all of us. In getting those first scripts together, we had to teach a group of writers what 'The Chosen' culture was, what our universe rules were. And then we had to create the show that had its own identity that used humor in a different rhythm and how we would portray events from 'The Chosen' proper, which are also part of this universe, and have them tie into moments along the way, so we could sort of ground ourselves.

"And of course, we had the live action cast who are reprising many of their roles. But they get to do it in a kind of heightened reality. So, Jonathan Roumie's Jesus character gets to explore that character differently. The stakes aren't quite so high. He gets to tell some punch lines. I think everybody's had a lot of fun with it. And yeah, it's just grown from there."

The 14-episode animated series features the voice talents of Emmy winner Paul Walter Hauser ("Black Bird," "I, Tonya"), Emmy nominee Yvonne Orji ("Insecure"), two-time Grammy-nominated artist Jordin Sparks, as well as cast members from "The Chosen", including Jonathan Roumie, Paras Patel, Elizabeth Tabish, Noah James, Joey Vahedi, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Brandon Potte and George H. Xanthis.

The nine-year-old Abby (voiced by Romy Fay) is the curious, outspoken "little keg of dynamite" who is desperate to do the right thing and to know things, which leads to many questions about everything. While her loyal, thoughtful, and patient best friend, Joshua (voiced by Jude Zarzaur), also nine, is the youngest of eight brothers who endlessly tease him.

The talking Sheep is voiced by Paul Walter Hauser and the Sheep's trusty smart and witty sidekick friend, Pigeon, is voiced by Yvonne Orji. Voicing the parents of Abby are Danny Nucci as Abba/Eli and Zehra Fazal as Eema/Hannah.

Swanson, who is known for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (1999), J. J. Abrams' sci-fi series "Fringe" (2008), as well as the recent box office success "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (2024) for Lionsgate, told us in our exclusive interview with him that the test screenings of "The Chosen Adventures" have been very positive.

He said, "The test screenings have been incredibly humbling for me to hear back from families and kids and parents alike who are enjoying the shows, who relate as we hoped they would. Early results are really promising. We can never, of course, predict exactly how an audience is going to catch on.

"We certainly didn't predict how the audience was going to catch on with 'The Chosen.' We just thought, well, we were using the greatest book ever written, so let's just go for it.

"And so that's the same spirit we bring to the script seven years later as we're portraying these huge events in 'The Chosen'. So, the same thing with the animated show. We just wanted to tell the story with honesty, relatability, and as much humor as we could pack in."

Asked whether he consulted his kids, nephews, or nieces about the animation, he revealed, "We did. All of my writers are either parents or uncles or have stepkids. And so, we were all drawing on kids that we know for our main characters, our heroes, our nine-year-old heroes. But we were also concerned with how we tell the message in a way that's not going to scare kids, so that we get the right messages across. So, we did consult with child learning experts and pastors alike." —MGP, GMA Integrated News