The New Pope comes from director Paolo Sorrentino and it’s his second series set in the world of the modern papacy.
The series picks up where The Young Pope left off, with Jude Law’s Lenny Belardo, known as Pope Pius XIII, in a coma. Following an unpredictable and mysterious turn of events, Secretary of State Voiello (Silvio Orlando) succeeds in having Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich), a charming and sophisticated moderate English aristocrat, placed on the papal throne, adopting the name John Paul III. The new pope seems ideal, but he conceals secrets and has a certain fragility, and Voiello immediately understands that it will not be easy to replace the charismatic Pius XIII.
Hanging between life and death, Lenny Belardo has become a Saint, with thousands now idolising him, fueling the contrast between fundamentalisms. Meanwhile, the Church is under attack from external threats and scandals striking the symbols of Christianity and risking irreversibly devastating the hierarchies. As always, however, in the Vatican, nothing is what it seems. Good and evil proceed arm-in-arm towards history, and to reach the showdown, we must wait for the events to take their course.
Starring Jude Law, John Malkovich, Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Maurizio Lombardi, Henry Goodman, Ulrich Thomsen, Mark Ivanir, and Massimo Ghini. The series is written by Sorrentino with Umberto Contarello and Stefano Bises.
The New Pope premieres January 10th on Sky Atlantic and January 13th on HBO with nine episodes.
