Why it’s not surprising that Martin Scorsese is making a religious series with Fox Nation

Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese is set to direct, host, and produce a new religious docudrama series after signing a deal with Fox Nation, the streaming service headed by Fox News Media.

Slated to begin airing in November and run through May in a two-part release, “Martin Scorsese: The Saints,” will feature dramatized episodes that delve into the lives of eight saints, including Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian, and Maximillian Kolbe.

Since its premiere in 2018, Fox Nation has served as a companion service to its conservative parent network, seeking to “become a kind of Netflix” for right-leaning viewers, per the New York Times. Now, the “Killers of the Flower Moon” director becomes the latest addition to an already star-studded lineup of shows, including “Yellowstone” (Kevin Costner), “Liberty or Death: Boston Tea Party” (Rob Lowe), and “History of the World in Six Glasses” (Dan Aykroyd.) 

Scorsese’s decision to align himself with Fox — long known for endorsing right-wing political figures, frequently championing problematic ideologies, and even becoming embroiled in peddling false claims related to the 2020 presidential election — may come as a surprise to some. 

However, given that the media syndicate is conservative, a political affiliation that often coincides with staunch religiosity, the impending premiere of Scorsese’s “The Saints” makes quite a bit of sense. Scorsese is Catholic, a religious identity that factored heavily into some of his past works of film. The “Taxi Driver” director, in a statement about his latest venture, said, “I’ve lived with the stories of the saints for most of my life, thinking about their words and actions, imagining the worlds they inhabited, the choices they faced, the examples they set.

“These are stories of eight very different men and women, each of them living through vastly different periods of history and struggling to follow the way of love revealed to them and to us by Jesus’ words in the gospels.”

In 1988, Scorsese made “The Last Temptation of Christ,” an epic drama starring Willem Dafoe as Jesus of Nazareth and based on the 1955 book of the same name. Like its literary predecessor, the film would go on to have quite a controversial legacy — it was denounced as heretical at the time it debuted for its depiction of Jesus in deep spiritual conflict regarding his relationship with God. 

Years later, Scorsese would embark on another project with religious influence, adapting Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel for his film, “Silence” (2016.) The movie stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries secretly sent to isolationist, 17th-century Japan — where Christians were being persecuted — in search of their missing mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson).

Speaking about the film in 2016 to a Jesuit publication, Scorsese affirmed that his "way has been, and is, Catholicism. After many years of thinking about other things, dabbling here and there, I am most comfortable as a Catholic."

"I believe in the tenets of Catholicism,” he added. “I'm not a doctor of the church. I'm not a theologian who could argue the Trinity. I'm certainly not interested in the politics of the institution," the director said. "But the idea of the Resurrection, the idea of the Incarnation, the powerful message of compassion and love — that's the key. The sacraments, if you are allowed to take them, to experience them, help you stay close to God."

While it’s unclear at this time how much of a role Fox’s political associations had in the newly forged partnership, it’s safe to say that “The Saints”'s November 2024 debut — a time when American politics will be in fervent full swing — should nonetheless play out interestingly.