Ryan Swanson said he had never thought about what led Peter to fish all night before he sat down to help write the scene involving the miraculous catch of the fish for the hit series “The Chosen.”
“I never thought of that moment, what led Peter to need to fish all night, and after catching nothing, stay out there casting their nets,” said Swanson, one of Dallas Jenkins’ writing partners. Then, after writing the scene, he said it was up to the crew to make the magic happen.
That fishing scene is from the early days of the show. Season 1, Episode 4, to be specific. But it’s the first one Swanson pointed toward when he sat down with reporters in Florida. This past fall, Swanson and others involved in “The Chosen” were featured at the show’s conference.
Swanson’s a writer and producer who has worked with Jenkins on multiple projects. He is credited as a screenwriter on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”
Born in Minnesota, Swanson went to Macalester College. He attended high school with Dallas Jenkins’ wife Amanda Jenkins. Later, Amanda Jenkins introduced Jenkins and Swanson, and now the two are joined at the hip.
This scene showing the miracle of catching the fish came to mind when Swanson was asked what were the most enjoyable scenes to write. Swanson, who is also listed as an executive producer, also opened up about his writing process and what it’s like to be part of the creation of “The Chosen.”
Organizing rule No. 1 for the writers of “The Chosen” is to start with the Bible. “The words of the Bible stay behind an electrified fence, if you will,” said Swanson. “We can’t touch it. We don’t co-opt it. We don’t alter it.”
The writers do, however, also try to think about new perspectives.
When writing Season 6, Swanson said the writers were looking at the “most well-known, well-covered, emotionally draining material that you could conceive of trying to reenact.” Without giving any detail, Swanson said the writers think they found new things to focus on that are different than other portrayals.
Season 5 also involved emotional material — Holy Week.
When preparing to write about Holy Week, Swanson said the group did deep dives and focused on theological reviews, historical accounts and their own stories. They looked at the politics of the time.
Jesus turning over of the tables was something Swanson thought a lot about — “When he turned the tables over, he severed surgically a very important alliance, a tenuous alliance between Roman oversight and the high priesthood,” the writer said.
Swanson said this led to the disruption of commerce. Thinking about those details is how the group approached the whole season. Sticking close to the Bible is something that matters to Swanson (and Jenkins for that matter), but they also needed to make dramatic choices to move the show forward.
Everything in the Bible is important, but sometimes they couldn’t portray every moment they wanted to, said Swanson. “We needed the series to sort of move in an emotional direction.” Sometimes cuts had to be made in order to keep the story moving.
But Swanson said, that doesn’t mean those scenes won’t appear elsewhere.
Some scenes “didn’t necessarily make it into our script only because we were telling the story and we continued to tell the story of at least 15 people and their walk with Jesus,” said Swanson. “So, I would say if we’ve missed a moment, don’t give up on it. We might get back there and we might actually get back there in a different series.”
Swanson’s work doesn’t start and stop with “The Chosen.” He’s also the executive producer on “The Chosen Adventures.” It’s a 14-episode animated series about a girl named Abby who is 9 years old and filled with questions. The young girl and her best friend Joshua meet Jesus and the story unfolds from there.
“We were surprised and encouraged to discover that children have been watching ‘The Chosen’ alongside their parents, so we wanted to continue the family co-viewing experience by creating an animated series that is full of humor, heartfelt life lessons, and lovable characters,” said Swanson.