Producers of the wildly popular The Bible series that aired on History have cut out scenes featuring the Obama-lookalike Satan from its upcoming Son of God film adaptation.
Roma Downey, who produced the film with husband Mark Burnett, told The Hollywood Reporter:
“It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting-room floor. This is now a movie about Jesus, the son of God, and the devil gets no more screen time.”
Son of God is set for a Feb 28 release date and is primarily a refocused version of the 10-hour miniseries. In order to trim down the content to a 2 hour or so film focusing on Jesus, Downey explained that they purposefully decided to leave Satan, played by actor Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni, out.
It was hard not to notice the similarities in appearance between Ouazanni and Obama when the series aired and the internet lit up with commentaries from all sides of the spectrum about the likeness. In turn; Downey, Burnett and History all released statements in support of the president, insisting that it was all an unfortunate happenstance although many believed – and still do – that the connection was purposeful.
Downey added:
“Someone made a comment that the actor who played the devil vaguely resembled our president, and suddenly the media went nuts. The next day, when I was sure everyone would only be talking about Jesus, they were talking about Satan instead. For our movie, Son of God, I wanted all of the focus to be on Jesus. I want his name to be on the lips of everyone who sees this movie, so we cast Satan out. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting-room floor.”
Do you agree with this casting out casting decision?
