Samuel Brace on Jude Law’s role in The New Pope…
“It’s all I think about. I even dream about it.” – Pope Pius XIII
Alleluia! News broke this week that Jude Law will indeed be involved with The New Pope, the follow up to 2017’s best TV show, The Young Pope. No details are available as yet, but we can safely assume that Law will be returning to the role of Lenny Belardo, aka Pope Pius XIII. We also know that John Malkovich will be joining the cast in some capacity, but beyond this slither of insight, we really don’t know what to expect. How big is Law’s role? Who is the ‘new pope’? It’s all up for debate.
The Young Pope (which aired in the US in 2017 and Europe in 2016) was a truly exquisite season of television offering a little something of everything, combing overwhelming sadness with charming humour, and never failing to surprise its viewers. I for one would have been content with this world being left alone after The Young Pope was brought to a heart-wrenching and uncertain end, but the chance to spend time with these characters that I love once more is one that I can’t fail to be excited by.
So I’m in. I’m in with a little trepidation, but I’m in, as I expect the HBO show’s other loyal devotees are. The New Pope is set to begin filming this November, indicating that there will be quite a wait before it arrives on television sets, but what size role does Law need to play as the titanic Pope Pius XIII? For me, it at all possible, it must be heliocentric.
I would suggest it obvious that there is nothing more crucial to the success and justifiability of The New Pope than Jude Law (who was so immaculate in its parent show) having a significant role in proceedings. Pope Pius XIII was a creation of such splendour, so charismatic, confounding, frightening, inspiring, and endearing, that, if he survived the events of The Young Pope (we must assume he did), there can be no way to justify the show’s return without the character playing a central part in the tale. As a quick reminder, at the end of The Young Pope, Lenny collapsed after delivering a moving homily to the faithful in Venice, seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary right before the show came to a close. Now, we can take a few clues from the name of this follow-up series, clearly this isn’t The Young Pope season 2, otherwise, it would be named as such. This is The New Pope. So it would appear axiomatic that there will be a new pope. I suppose this could be a misleading title, after all, Pope Pius XIII is still a fairly new pope himself, his papacy has barely begun, but let us assume that we should take the title literally and that for this new show there will be a new pope.
Okay, but what does that mean for Lenny? Perhaps – and I believe this to be the best case scenario, the best way to keep Law involved as much as possible – The New Pope will be taking influence from real life events and, as such, Pope Pius XIII will retire the papacy due to health concerns and fill a role not dissimilar to the recently retired Pope Benedict XVI. You see, upon his retirement, Pope Benedict received the title of Pope Emeritus, retaining the style of His Holiness and the title of Pope. Benedict also continues to dress in papal white, lives at a monastery in Vatican City, and as such a beloved figure during his time as pope, Benedict still has significant influence among the faithful. This, does it not, seem like a pretty ideal and applicable roadmap for the fictional Pope Pius XIII?
While not performing the duties of the actual pope, Lenny can still fulfill an important role (and perhaps, hopefully, a mischievous one) behind the scenes, maybe causing conflict between himself and this ‘new’ pope who may very well become envious of the adoration Lenny continues to receive. This could make for some truly splendid television, providing plenty of the Vatican intrigue that made The Young Pope so enthralling. Not only would this allow the new Vicar of Christ to take on what will surely be a big role in the show but it would play the vital function of keeping Lenny integral to events, especially if he doesn’t agree with the direction in which the Church is being taken under its new leadership. After all, Pope Pius XIII still has so much unfinished business. Put to one side his emotional and soul-stirring search for God, mirrored in his search for his parents, Lenny was in the middle of implementing radical change to the Catholic world (and I for one would be hugely upset if his feud with the Prime Minister of Italy isn’t continued on some level). It seems to me that all of this and more is possible with the ‘Benedict’ approach but regardless, it’s even clearer that Lenny’s central role to events is a desideratum for the new series.
No matter what happens in The New Pope, the show will fail if it doesn’t recapture what made The Young Pope so special. The perfect blend of humour and insurmountable sadness present in the show must find its way into this new instalment. The New Pope has to make us cry, it has to make us laugh, it has to make us believe, and it has to constantly, like the mind of Pope Pius XIII, confound our expectations. The New Pope will surely retain the exquisite visual style of its predecessor, and hopefully find another divinely crafted soundtrack to score events, but to retain the love of its audience; it needs to remember what brought it to the dance. Obviously, whoever the new pope is will play a big role but it would be a colossal shame if this were to overshadow Lenny’s intoxicating tale. Ultimately, there’s a lot to be excited by and there’s certainly cause for trepidation, but there’s no question The New Pope will be eagerly anticipated by those who were first so illuminated by Paolo Sorrentino’s masterpiece. It can’t come fast enough.
