Diogo Morgado, the Portuguese actor who played Jesus Christ in Mark Burnett’s The Bible series and Son of God, has been cast in a pilot being developed for The CW. He will co-star in The Messengers.
The pilot was written by Eoghan O’Donnell, who will also executive produce with Basil Iwanyk, reports Deadline. The story starts with a mysterious object crashing on earth and kills random people. These strangers then suddenly wake up and everyone blames them for the apocalypse.
Morgado’s character is simply referred to as ‘The Man’ in the script and is one of the people killed when the object lands. He wakes up in a desert and begins his personal journey for answers.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cast so far includes Skins’ Sofia Black-D'Elia and Super 8’s Joel Courtney. Stephen Williams was tapped to direct. Kent Kubena and Ava Jamshidi are also executive producing. The pilot will be filmed in Albuquerque.
While Morgado does have a long list of credits in Portugal, his credits in Hollywood are rather slim. He did an episode of ABC’s Revenge and his biggest role to date has been playing Jesus in Son of God. That film was made up of sequences from Burnett’s hit History Channel show. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has already grossed $28.8 million since its release last Friday.