'The Chosen' Stars Get Out of Their Comfort Zones in Prime Video’s New Adventure Series 'The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls'
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Reel Perspectives
August 9, 2026
If you thought the cast of The Chosen had already been through enough while bringing one of the most beloved faith based stories on television to life, think again. This time there are no carefully rehearsed scenes and definitely no costumes. Instead, Jonathan Roumie, Paras Patel, Elizabeth Tabish, Noah James, Luke Dimyan and The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins are trading the set for some seriously unforgiving wilderness in Prime Video’s new original series, The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls.
Premiering August 9 exclusively on Prime Video, the six episode adventure series produced by 5&2 Studios, alongside The Natural Studios and Workerbee, put the stars of the global hit The Chosen under the guidance of legendary survivalist and adventurer Bear Grylls. All six episodes will be available to stream at once, making this one of those shows viewers can jump into and binge in one sitting.
Fans know these actors for the characters they've helped bring to life on The Chosen. Roumie as Jesus, Patel as Matthew, Tabish as Mary Magdalene, James as Andrew and Dimyan as Judas. The Chosen has grown far beyond a traditional television series, developing an enormous and deeply passionate audience around its portrayal of the life of Jesus and the people surrounding him. But The Chosen in the Wild isn't interested in keeping them safely inside the boundaries of those roles. The series takes viewers behind the performances and into the personal lives, fears, doubts and beliefs of the people portraying these iconic biblical figures and that means getting uncomfortable - sometimes literally.
Bear Grylls has built a career surviving dangerous expeditions around the globe and he brought that same spirit to the cast of The Chosen, challenging them with outdoor experiences while creating space for conversations that are much more personal than your typical survival show.
Across the series, the cast ventures through breathtaking but challenging locations including Utah's Castle Valley and Canyonlands, the Ausable River, the Colorado River, the Great Basin Desert and the Adirondack Forest.
Oh, and apparently eating things most of us would politely decline is part of the experience, too.
What makes The Chosen in the Wild different from a standard celebrity adventure series is what happens between the physical challenges. Grylls, whose own Christian faith has long been an important part of his public story, isn't simply trying to see whether these actors can survive the elements. He's interested in what happens when people are stripped of their usual routines and forced to confront themselves creating a foundation for some surprisingly intimate conversations.
The cast members each approach their faith differently, bringing their own experiences, questions and perspectives to the discussion. Rather than presenting one identical version of what it means to believe, the series allows each person to speak from their own personal walk with God. And that's where the series could prove especially interesting for fans.
Watching Roumie play Jesus is one thing. Watching Roumie step away from the character and talk about his own faith, challenges and experiences is something entirely different. The same goes for Patel, Tabish, James and Dimyan, who have each spent years inhabiting characters whose relationships with faith are central to The Chosen. Now audiences get to meet the people behind those performances.
Dallas Jenkins isn't sitting this one out and gets in on the action too. The creator and executive producer of The Chosen joins Grylls and the cast, giving fans an opportunity to see another side of the man responsible for building the faith based series into an international phenomenon. That's an important part of the appeal here.
The wilderness becomes more than a backdrop. It becomes a way of putting the cast in situations that require trust, resilience and vulnerability.
Recent coverage has highlighted the show's more reflective side, with the survival challenges serving as a pathway into conversations about faith, failure, identity and the personal experiences that shaped these performers.
And there's plenty of personality along the way.
The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls isn't another behind the scenes special showing how a scene was filmed. It's an opportunity to see familiar faces in unfamiliar circumstances. We've watched each actor tell stories about faith, friendship, betrayal, sacrifice and redemption. Now they're telling their own stories.
Watch The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls now on Prime Video.
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