The Young Pope was a limited series produced by Sky and HBO. It starred Jude Law as a pope named Lenny Belardo. It touched on themes like loneliness and loss and abandonment, and was also the craziest thing you’ve ever seen. The pope prayed a corrupt nun to death. The Australian government mailed him a live kangaroo, which he released into the Vatican gardens, where it hopped along here and there until it was murdered. Diane Keaton played basketball a lot. It was a whole thing.
And now, it appears it will be more of a thing, as HBO and Sky have decided to continue all this pope business with The New Pope, some sort of loosely connected follow-up from creator Paolo Sorrentino. Via Variety:
Although Sky, HBO and Sorrentino have clearly decided to keep things under wraps, it’s clear that The New Pope is conceived somewhat similarly to anthology series such as Fargo and True Detective, which changed casts in their second seasons but retained elements of the first season’s original world. Sources say there will be certainly be elements in The New Pope that refer strongly back to The Young Pope, and some of the characters from the earlier show will return for the new series.
A few things:
– The New Pope does not have quite the ring of “The Young Pope.” Like, it doesn’t make me picture a toddler in a pope hat or a cool pope who wears sunglasses and shoots pool, the latter of which I must stress very much happened in the first go-round. Strike one.
– I want this to be a prequel about Voiello, the duplicitous cardinal with a huge fake mole who tried to sabotage the pope with a sex scandal. It doesn’t look like it will be. Strike two.
– I will forgive them all of this if they reveal who killed the kangaroo.
(Via Variety)
