Bear Grylls took The Chosen cast into the Utah desert and something unexpected happened

Luke Dimyan plays Judas in The Chosen, the evangelical Christian drama that's somehow pulled in 280 million viewers worldwide. He's also, according to Bear Grylls' new Amazon show, genuinely nice. Which is funny because, you know, betraying the messiah tends to define a guy's whole reputation.

The Chosen in the Wild pairs the survival expert with cast members from Dallas Jenkins' crowdfunded biblical series for a Utah desert adventure. Between rappelling down cliffs and filtering water through socks, they talk about faith. It sounds like it could be unbearably earnest. It mostly isn't.

What's striking—weirdly striking for a show about two men in the wilderness—is how comfortable both Grylls and Dimyan seem with gentleness. There's this quiet confidence in it. Not the toxic kind of outdoor masculinity you'd expect from a survival show, where everything's about proving toughness and dominating nature. Instead they're just... talking. Actually listening to each other.

The Chosen itself started in 2017 as a passion project, crowd-funded by evangelical audiences who felt underserved by mainstream biblical dramas. It's built a genuine following, especially among religious communities. Grylls, who's a Christian himself and has always been pretty open about faith, seems like the natural choice to host something like this. He's not there to debunk anyone or poke holes. He's there because he gets it.

What makes the show work—at least from what's on offer—is that it doesn't feel like a stunt. The conversations could've been uncomfortable, preachy, or worse, performative. Instead there's something almost radical about two confident men just sitting with each other, talking about belief without defensiveness or bravado. No one's trying to out-masculine the other guy. No one's performing strength.

It's a small thing, maybe. But in a space where masculinity still often means never admitting vulnerability, where faith conversations tend toward either aggressive preaching or aggressive skepticism, two guys in the desert just being honest with each other about what they believe—that lands different.