For Bear Grylls, taking the cast of THE CHOSEN into the wild was the obvious next step in his life.
“The great thing about THE CHOSEN IN THE WILD is there’s time to go a little deeper,” the survivalist told Movieguide®. “There’s space for it to breathe, isn’t there? You travel with someone, and you cross a river and climb a cliff and sit around a campfire together. There’s time to talk about the real stuff.”
THE CHOSEN IN THE WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS debuts on Aug. 9, 2026 on Prime Video, with all six episodes available at launch. It features Grylls leading Jonathan Roumie (Jesus), Paras Patel (Matthew), Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene), Noah James (Andrew), Luke Dimyan (Judas) and creator Dallas Jenkins through Utah’s Castle Valley, Canyonlands, the Ausable River, the Colorado River, the Great Basin Desert and the Adirondack Forest, according to Amazon MGM Studios.
But why exactly did Grylls want to work with THE CHOSEN?
He’s always been vocal about his faith, and last year, he released a book titled The Greatest Story Ever Told: An Eyewitness Account, which recounts the “incredible true story of Jesus of Nazareth, the man who changed the course of history forever.”
“I literally woke up one morning and knew I was going to write this thing, with utter conviction,” Grylls told Premier Christianity. “I got straight on the phone to the publishers and said: ‘It’s going to be the biggest-selling book in history.’ They laughed. I said: ‘It will! After the Bible and the Qur’an, it’s going to be the biggest.'”
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Even though this wasn’t Grylls’ first book, “It’s the proudest thing in my work world I’ve ever done,” he said.
Grylls’ wife, Shara, recently updated her own book, Never Stop Holding Hands, with more details about her and her husband’s spiritual upbringings.
“I was brought up in a Christian household. So was Bear, but mine wasn’t as evangelical as it is now,” Shara told Woman Alive. “Bear became introduced to that side of church when he was 16, and then when I met him, he introduced it to me. I’d grown up in a local village church. I got confirmed when I was 19, because I didn’t want to get confirmed when I was younger. I wanted it to really mean something, so I did it after school.”
“Our Christian faith has been a really big thing for our family and for our marriage, and that’s mainly down to Bear. It’s the backbone to our lives and marriage,” she explained.
As Grylls got older and became more involved in television, he began to bring faith into his profession, which is why THE CHOSEN IN THE WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS happened.
“The wild always reveals who we are. Adventures open us all up. The outdoors lights us up. And I think what we’ve tried to do with CHOSEN IN THE WILD is get to know the real people and show their real journeys — show the real stuff,” Grylls told Leah Klett in 2024. “Isn’t it the same with THE CHOSEN? It shows the real reality of what Jesus was like and their relationships and their journeys. It’s the element of faith that I’ve always responded best to myself.”
From writing a book all about Jesus to guiding THE CHOSEN cast through the wilderness, Grylls’ partnership with the series reflects a faith that has become inseparable from both his personal life and his work.
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