Some of the most widely recognized Old Testament stories are reimagined in “The Faithful” through the perspectives of the women who shaped them.
Fox Entertainment’s upcoming six-part miniseries “The Faithful: Women of the Bible” offers a dramatic retelling of the Book of Genesis through the lens of five women whose choices defined generations.
The project comes from an interfaith team, including executive producer Julie Weitz (“Game of Silence”) and showrunner René Echevarria (“Carnival Row,” “The 4400″), who saw a story in Genesis that had not been put on screen yet — the women’s perspectives.
“We had this epiphany that there’s a point of view that has not been really looked at,” Weitz said. “Which were the women and how they were essential to the stories that most people know about: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And they were also timeless and relevant, relatable, human”
Centering on Sarah, her handmaid Hagar, Sarah’s daughter-in-law Rebekah, and sisters Leah and Rachel, the series explores how their lives intersect through love, marriage, motherhood, conflict and faith.
Each of these women represents what it means to grapple with faith on a human level — a complicated process filled with imperfection, impatience, doubt and struggle.
“These women are remembered for their great faith,” Echevarria said. “But it was a journey.”
Each of these women’s stories also carries lasting significance, serving as “the beginning” of several faith walks, Weitz noted.
“They really were the genesis of the three largest religions of all time,” Weitz said, referring to the shared foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
“These stories are essential for many people and many belief systems.”
Weitz and Echevarria aimed to bring the Bible to mainstream audiences while staying true to its most difficult and provocative stories.
They established a guiding principle for the series — whenever scripture conveys something clearly, it must be presented without compromise. In areas where the text has gaps, television allows room for some creative interpretation.
“If it is expressly stated in the Bible, that is our road map,” Weitz said. “Where it’s not, we obviously have to imagine a bit. This is television.”
She added, “We want these women to come to life and be dimensionalized. But we also had a very specific guide and roadmap, which was the Bible. We took it very, very seriously in creating and fleshing out these women’s lives.”
Biblical scholars, historians and cultural experts provided “fantastic guidance” to ensure that every detail in the series — from scripts to production design and period music — remained historically and culturally accurate.
“We really wanted this to feel like when you were immersed in the world ... that it felt true and real,” Weitz said.
The series boasts an impressive cast, including Minnie Driver and Jeffrey Donovan, and delivers outstanding production value that lives up to the high standards set by previous biblical drama successes such as “The Chosen” and “House of David.”
Both Weitz and Echevarria cited “The Chosen” as having set a new benchmark for quality in faith-based entertainment while simultaneously paving the way for values-driven content in mainstream media.
“The fact that it’s even possible to have the conversation … is only made possible because of the success of ‘The Chosen,’” Echevarria said. “There’s a hunger out there for these stories.”
He added, “There’s a big part of the country that feels like what’s important to them isn’t on mainstream media”
When does ‘The Faithful’ come out?
The three-part, six-week event “The Faithful: Women of the Bible” premiered on March 22 at 6 p.m. MDT exclusively on FoxTV and FoxOne, with next-day streaming on Hulu. Episodes air over three consecutive Sundays, concluding on April 5.