Luke Dimyan has spent three seasons stepping into the complex shoes of Judas Iscariot on The Chosen — and the actor says he’s finally come to understand him.
“We’re very lucky to have had three seasons with him now, for me to build and get to understand him,” Dimyan, 38, tells PEOPLE while discussing season five of the historical drama series. “I’ve had this time to appreciate his in-depth viewpoints — what he cares about and what has influenced a lot of his ideals and beliefs.”
Dimyan describes Judas as “someone of very strong faith who cares about his people.” He explains, “He is watching his entire society — his family, his loved ones — being abused and overtaken by this Roman society in a religious atmosphere that isn’t appreciating its people.”
“He wants and desires change so badly that he finds a messiah in someone he can trust, and when that messiah doesn’t deliver on the salvation that he so desperately desires, you can see the very human lengths that he’ll go to try and cause a catalyst to create a situation for that kind of salvation,” he continues.
Portraying such a controversial and iconic figure hasn’t been without pressure. To do the role justice, Dimyan says he had to approach it with both reverence and release. “I think it takes, first, a huge amount of respect for the source material, people’s beliefs and the way people view these characters,” he says.
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“But then also a good, healthy, gentle release of those expectations and putting a good amount of faith and trust in the material presented before you, through the scripts given to us by our fantastic writers for this show. And then doing our homework, doing our work, realizing the history of these characters, knowing what’s going to happen and then portraying them as honestly and as grounded as we can and giving them our own little flavors.”
His costars agree. Noah James, who plays Andrew the Apostle, says they “definitely feel the pressure.” “We have to release it because otherwise we would just be paralyzed,” he says. “They are obviously some of the most important figures in our entire history, but finding the character is less so in the stained glass windows and more in the grit and dirt and blood and sweat and tears of these people.”
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The Chosen: Last Supper has debuted in theaters in three parts — all of which are now in select theaters nationwide. All of season 5 will be available to stream on Prime Video later in 2025.
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