Angel Studios finally addresses The Chosen ‘breakup’ after legal battle

The Chosen has “terminated” its contract with Angel Studios, marking the official breakup of the show and its former distributor — and the studio has finally spoken out.

The waters have been muddied by The Chosen Inc’s “legal issues” with Angel Studios over the past two months. After Season 4’s incredible theatrical run, fans expected it to drop on streaming straight after — but an undisclosed disagreement between the two sides prevented its online release.

Details are still a bit murky, but the series has since partnered with Come and See, a nonprofit that’s also working to translate the show into 600 languages (it’s already broken Baywatch’s long-held record).

While Dallas Jenkins hasn’t revealed any information about what went down at the Sound of Freedom studio, a statement has since been released.

Angel Studios

“Sadly, The Chosen Inc has terminated its agreement with Angel Studios. We hope that one day the agreement may be restored,” it reads.

“The team at Angel Studios is so happy we were able to be instrumental in the founding of The Chosen and thrilled our long hours of hard work over the last eight years helped it become the worldwide success it is. We thank the Angel audience and fans for helping bring The Chosen to life — we couldn’t have done this without you.”

Neal Harmon, CEO of Angel Studios, also said: “We hope that one day the agreement will be restored — and we plan to pursue the appeal provision that Angel and The Chosen agreed to as the process for resolving disagreements privately.”

Angel Studios (formerly VidAngel) was instrumental in launching The Chosen. After Jenkins’ short film The Shepherd proved people’s demand for a series revolving around Jesus, its head honchos convinced him to turn to crowdfunding — and it became the biggest fan-funded show in TV history.

According to Willkie, Angel may have overstepped; in more specific terms, it was accused of “breaching the agreement by failing to obtain the requisite approvals for Angel’s marketing and exploitation of the brand and voice of the series and infringing TCI’s copyrights and trademarks.”

The Chosen secured a positive result following the arbitration, leading to Jenkins’ announcement of Season 4’s long-awaited streaming date.

In the meantime, find out how to watch The Chosen Season 4 on streaming, why you should buy it on DVD or Blu-ray, and what we know about The Chosen Season 5 so far.