It was the off-beat HBO drama that launched a million memes. Jude Law starred as Lenny Belardo, AKA Pope Pius XIII. The newly elected (highly conservative) Pope and former Archbishop of New York was joined at the Vatican by his personal assistant, Diane Keaton as Sister Mary, the woman responsible for raising the orphaned Belardo since he was a child. The Young Pope was met with highly favourable reviews across Europe, the UK, and the US, with the show launching in Australia at SBS On Demand.
The follow-up series, The New Pope, goes into production later this year in Italy, with John Malkovich starring as, well, the new Pope. As with the original series, Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello and Stefano Bises will write The New Pope, with Sorrentino expected to again direct every episode. It is not yet known just how much of a presence Jude Law will have in the new series.
If you haven't seen The Young Pope, which we advise was deliciously bizarre, the show continues to stream at SBS On Demand. It's well worth a watch, or a re-watch if you did see it when it started streaming back in 2017.
