National Geographic’s Killing Jesus airs Easter Sunday in Africa on DStv

National Geographic’s new movie Killing Jesus makes it’s debut on the channel on Easter Sunday (5 April), a week after it airs in the US.

It’s the third in the channel’s “Killing…” series – each based on the books by Bill O’Reilly. The other two films in the series were Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy which were ratings winners for the channel – they hold the status of being the most-watched properties on the channel.

Will Killing Jesus be the same? The channel’s certainly put an explosion of energy into it, casting notable TV names in the title roles.

The cast includes Kelsey Grammar who reprises his power mad and brutal role from Boss in a new guise – he plays King Herod.

True Blood’s Steven Moyer plays Pontius Pilate and Emmanuelle Chriqui of Entourage plays Herodia – who conspires to have John the Baptist killed. Stephanie Leonidas whips off her Defiance make-up to transform from Irisa to Salome, Herodia’s daughter.

Jesus is played by Lebanon-born actor Haaz Sleiman who is best known for her role as Tarek in the movie The Visitor. His TV roles include Mo Mo on Nurse Jackie and Khalid Ansar on Covert Affairs.

The movie airs from 6:10pm WAT on DStv channel 181.