Jude Law’s Pope Pius XIII winks knowingly at the audience as he strolls down a presumably Italian beach surrounded by beautiful women in bright bikinis. He’s teasing the audience about HBO’s upcoming limited series, The New Pope, which is a follow-up to Paolo Sorrentino’s 2017’s The Young Pope.
Meanwhile, back at the Vatican, John Malkovich joins the cast as what appears to be the pope in residence, although little is known about Malkovich’s role at this point. Both sequence is set to an instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix’s timeless “All Along the Watchtower.”
Returning cast members from The Young Pope include Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier and Maurizio Lombardi. Henry Goodman, Ulrich Thomsen, Mark Ivanir, Yuliya Snigir and Massimo Ghini also star, while Sharon Stone and Marilyn Manson guest star.
Sorrentino directs every episode and writes The New Pope with Umberto Contarello and Stefano Bises. The Sky, HBO and Canal+ series is produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani for Wildside, part of the Fremantle family, and co-produced by Haut et Court TV and The Mediapro Studio.
The New Pope is slated to premiere “soon” on HBO but a date has not yet been announced. The pilot is premiering this Sunday at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.