SBS on Demand: The New Pope

Double episodes of The New Pope will drop weekly on SBS On Demand from mid January.

Created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino with Umberto Contarello and Stefano Bises, the series is a continuation of The Young Pope, which screened on SBS in 2017.

SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald, said: “With over 7 million registered users, SBS On Demand continues to deliver premium content from across the globe, for free. The Young Pope captivated SBS viewers in 2017 and we’re thrilled to be bringing the next instalment to Australian audiences in January. The New Pope joins an incredible suite of enthralling drama series coming to the platform in 2020, and we look forward to another exciting year of On Demand programming.”

The series will premiere on SBS at a later date in 2020.

The cast features two-time Academy Award® nominees Jude Law and John Malkovich. Returning cast from The Young Pope include Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier and Maurizio Lombardi. New cast for the series are Henry Goodman, Ulrich Thomsen, Mark Ivanir, Yuliya Snigir and Massimo Ghini. Sharon Stone and Marilyn Manson guest star.

Pius XIII (Jude Law) is in a coma. And after an unpredictable and mysterious turn of events, the Secretary of State Voiello succeeds in the enterprise of having Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich), a moderate English aristocrat, charming and sophisticated, placed on the papal throne adopting the name John Paul III. The new pope seems perfect, but he conceals secrets and a certain fragility. And he 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 and thousands of faithful are now idolizing him, fueling the contrast between fundamentalisms. Meanwhile, the Church is under attack from several scandals that risk devastating the hierarchies irreversibly and from external threats striking the symbols of Christianity. 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…

The New Pope is an SBS On Demand exclusive.

Thursday 16 January at SBS on Demand.