Interview by Paul Salfen
In the heart of North Hollywood, under the flickering neon of a Lankershim Boulevard theater, Ryan Swanson’s life took a sharp turn. It was 2010, and a Facebook message from a high school friend beckoned him across town for a reunion that would prove providential. “You’ve got to meet my husband,” she wrote. That husband was Dallas Jenkins, a filmmaker with a short called The Two Thieves, and what unfolded that night wasn’t just a conversation—it was a Hail Mary pass that would launch Swanson into the orbit of The Chosen, a global phenomenon, and its spirited offspring, The Chosen Adventures. “It blew my mind,” Swanson recalls, his Minnesota lilt still intact after years in Los Angeles. “Dallas had this lens on the margins of the Bible, telling stories of the people around Jesus without touching the red-letter text. It changed everything I thought about storytelling.”
Swanson, a St. Paul native who cut his teeth at Macalester College before diving into Hollywood’s deep end, is no stranger to high-stakes storytelling. He’s penned scripts for J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and helped bring Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to the big screen. But it’s his role as creator, executive producer, and writer of The Chosen Adventures—an animated series that follows 9-year-old Abby and her friend Joshua as they meet Jesus in Capernaum circa 30 CE—that feels like his true calling. With a Greek chorus of sheep and pigeons delivering wisecracks and wisdom, the show is a love letter to the child in all of us, a vibrant reimagining of faith for a new generation.
A Spark in the Writers’ Room
The genesis of The Chosen Adventures was less a lightning bolt than a slow-burning ember. “It started with a question,” Swanson says, leaning forward as if sharing a secret. “What’s the show we wish we’d had as kids?” For Swanson and his collaborators, Dallas Jenkins and Tyler Thompson, the answer lay in the DNA of The Chosen: an ensemble drama that lingers on its characters, letting their flaws and dreams breathe. But translating the gravitas of Jesus’ ministry into a kid-friendly cartoon? That was a leap of faith.
“It took years,” Swanson admits, his eyes crinkling with the memory. “We were deep into season two of The Chosenwhen we started tossing around ideas. Half the battle was building Capernaum, making it feel alive—then getting the tone right with those sheep and pigeons.” The result is a world both whimsical and weighty, where Abby’s endless questions mirror the curiosity of its young audience, and Jesus feels less like a distant icon and more like the greatest teacher you’d meet at the village well.
The voice cast is a coup, blending The Chosen veterans like Noah James and Elizabeth Tabish with newcomers Paul Walter Hauser and Yvonne Orji. “We knew how funny our live-action cast was behind the scenes,” Swanson says. “This was their chance to let loose in a heightened reality.” Hauser, a fan who reached out to Jenkins with a plea to join the Chosen universe, and Orji, a vocal supporter, bring a fresh spark. “It felt like a cosmic alignment,” Swanson says, grinning. “Like the stars—or maybe the Spirit—lined up.”
The Gospel in the Margins
Swanson’s approach to storytelling is as disciplined as it is passionate. In the writers’ room, a Bible sits open next to his keyboard, its pages worn from constant flipping through the Gospels. “We’re comparing stories, cross-referencing historians’ reports, diving into commentaries,” he says. But the rule is ironclad: no plot point can hinge on “because it’s in the Bible.” Every choice must pulse with human stakes—fight or flee, love or hate. “We’re not here to preach,” Swanson insists. “We’re here because these stories grip us, move us. They’ve changed our lives.”
That conviction drives The Chosen Adventures, which dares to be both universal and unapologetically faith-centered. “Our core audience knows what they’re getting with The Chosen,” Swanson says. “But with Adventures, someone might stumble in because of a funny sheep or a relatable kid like Abby, and find themselves rooting for characters who live a God-centered life.” It’s a stealthy evangelism, one that invites without demanding, luring viewers into Capernaum’s dusty streets and leaving them unexpectedly moved.
The Red Sea Moments
Swanson’s journey hasn’t been without its trials. Moving from live-action to animation was, in his words, “a steep learning curve.” He laughs, recalling his first meeting with the animation team: “I’m nodding along, pretending I know what a rigger or a compositor does.” Entrusting his vision to experts he barely understood required a leap of faith, but it’s one he’s made time and again. “You hand your stories to people who can do it better than you ever could,” he says. “That’s the trust.”
The Chosen team has faced plenty of “Red Sea moments”—crises where production seemed doomed by budget woes, illness, or last-minute rewrites. “Iron sharpens iron,” Swanson says, crediting his partners for keeping him grounded. “We challenge each other, lift each other up. And yeah, faith is a huge part of it.” For Swanson, Jenkins, and Thompson, every obstacle is a chance to rediscover the human core of their stories, to flip the narrative in a way no one’s seen before.
A North Hollywood Miracle
Swanson’s defining moment—the one that set this all in motion—came from that fateful North Hollywood meetup. “I could’ve bailed,” he admits. “You know how it is—plans with old friends, something comes up, or you’re just too tired. But I hoofed it across town.” That decision led him to Jenkins’ The Two Thieves, a short that reframed the crucifixion through the eyes of its peripheral figures. “It was so smart,” Swanson says, his voice softening. “It pointed back to Jesus without co-opting His story. I knew I had to say yes to whatever came next.”
What came next was The Chosen, a crowdfunded series that defied Hollywood odds to become a global hit, and now The Chosen Adventures, streaming on Amazon with a mission to reach younger hearts. “If no one saw it, it would’ve been enough to make it,” Swanson says, his sincerity disarming. “But we believe there’s someone out there who needs this—who wishes they’d had this as a kid.”
The Road Ahead
As The Chosen nears its seventh and final season, Swanson is already looking to the horizon. Joseph of Egypt, a new Amazon series filming in New Mexico, dives into the biblical saga with the same ground-level intimacy that defines The Chosen. “It’s not just the Technicolor dreamcoat,” Swanson says, referencing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical. “There’s real depth there, and we’re weaving it with historical research on ancient Egypt.” Talks of a Moses series are simmering, and a Bear Grylls special—yes, that Bear Grylls—promises to be “totally out of the box.”
Swanson’s eyes light up when he talks about what’s next, but it’s clear the journey itself is the reward. “Thank you for everything you do,” our interviewer told him, echoing the gratitude of fans worldwide. In a cynical industry, Ryan Swanson is a rare figure: a storyteller who believes in the power of his material, who sees every blank page as a chance to uncover truth. With The Chosen Adventures, he’s not just reimagining the Gospel for kids—he’s inviting us all to rediscover the wonder of Capernaum, one sheep, one pigeon, one question at a time.
Stream The Chosen Adventures on Amazon and follow Ryan Swanson’s next chapter with The Chosen and beyond.
