Jenji Kohan, the creator of the controversial, pro-LGBT Netflix show "Orange Is the New Black", has announced her next project is a teen drama based on the life of Jesus Christ.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kohan, who is also behind the show "Weeds", admitted that the religious overtones of her upcoming project already has "got some people nervous".
"It's like The Wonder Years but with Jesus, and there are all sorts of things where we cross lines - and there are crazies out there," she said.
"I remember [fellow TV director] Shonda [Rhimes] telling a story of people camping out outside her house when she killed McDreamy [on Grey's Anatomy]. People get crazy because they bathe in these characters, and they take it personally."
Kohan also said she was forced to purchase "terrorism insurance" to deal with the possible fallout over the planned series.
"You're always going to do something someone doesn't like, and you don't know how crazy that someone's gonna be," she said. "There's all sorts of things where we cross lines and people get weird about it...sometimes you get things right for a certain audience and wrong for another audience."
She added, "If you start thinking about whether it's appropriate for everyone, you're left with oatmeal."
According to the Digital Spy, The Wonder Years was told from the perspective of the grown Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) looking back on his younger years in the tumultuous late '60s. The hit show aired on ABC from 1988 to 1993.
"So if we take Jenji Kohan at her word, her own new series would be Jesus reflecting on his own miracles and all of the holy dramas that developed along the way," notes the outlet.
The Jewish Journal reports that Kohan is Jewish and her husband, Christopher Noxon, recently converted to Judaism. They, along with their three children, attend temple and observe Jewish holy days.
However, despite her faith, Kohan's shows regularly deal with controversial, anti-Biblical themes, including the glorification of same-sex relationships, crass language, and drug use. She explores religious themes - if not always respectfully - throughout Orange Is the New Black.
Writes blogger Brenton Sanderson of OITNB: "The main themes of the show are that committed heterosexual relationships are abnormal and that Christianity is an evil creed, which, owing to its stifling sexual morality, leads its practitioners to become hypocritical bigots with twisted, neurotic personalities. The Christian 'villain' in the show was sent to prison for killing a group of abortionists after receiving an abortion herself. Every woman in the prison, with the exception of the Christian villain, is in a lesbian relationship with one of their fellow inmates - even a nun."
