SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of “House of David,” now streaming on Prime Video.
When your story is not only thousands of years old but also one of the most well-known tales of all time, it’s not much of a spoiler to reveal that in the first season finale of Amazon’s Prime Video’s “House of David,”history was not rewritten. In the final moments, young sheep herder and musician David (Michael Iskander) threw one well-aimed rock with his sling to strike the gargantuan Goliath (Martyn Ford) in the head, ending his life.
Goliath (Martyn Ford)
However, knowing the outcome of that event doesn’t lessen the impact of that moment in the April 3 finale, since following David’s Bible-inspired story this season has been a journey unto itself. Early on, the earnest young shepherd with no leadership or battle skills was unexpectedly anointed the future King of Israel by Samuel (Stephen Lang), who was following the word of God. Then, using his talents playing the lyre and singing psalms, David grew to be a supportive comfort to the possibly mad King Saul (Ali Suliman) as well as begin a romance with Saul’s daughter, Michal (Indy Lewis). Both of these relationships played integral roles in giving David the permission and the confidence to bravely step up to battle the vengeful 11-foot-tall giant.
Was the iconic fight always meant for the final episode? How significant are the visions experienced throughout the season by several characters, including David? And what’s next for the recently renewed series that had 22 million viewers watching the premiere episode in its first 17 days? To answer these questions and more, Variety talked with “House of David” executive producers Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn, who co-directed the finale together.
Once the series started airing, did you hear from people who were surprised they were liking a faith-based show like “House of David?”
Jon Gunn: A lot of that, for sure. Everybody in the world knows about David and Goliath, and whether you’re a religious or Bible-reading person or not, this is a piece of history and an epic story. And there’s something about this Old Testament legendary hero’s journey that transcends being religious or not religious. So that probably speaks to why so many people are deciding to watch, even if they wouldn’t normally.
Jon Erwin: I’ve described it as David is the first hero’s journey. It really is the well by which many other heroes’ journeys are drawn, at least in part. There’s just an incredible relatability to the story and its themes, even if you have no real context for the Bible itself.
Was the framework of Season 1 always going to start with a David and Goliath tease and then the battle ending the season?
Gunn: We did play around with the first episode quite a lot. It wasn’t originally designed to include David and Goliath flashes, but it felt like a good promise to make at the head of the season, knowing that we were going to end the season with David and Goliath.
Erwin: The question was always where to put that Goliath moment. When we began to design the first season, I really got a lot of help from a lot of great friends like “The Chosen’s” Dallas Jenkins and Ryan Swanson, his lead writer, who is a structural genius. It became clear that Season 1 should be about this young boy chosen to be king in a nation that already had one and this collision course to fight this giant Goliath at the end of the season. Also, this absolute cliffhanger of: What happens now? David has killed the giant, but he has also triggered an absolute tidal wave from both sides of which he is in the middle of. It just seemed like a great place to leave the story and the character, and then come back with Season 2 and tell the rest of the story of this great battle.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
