There has never been more faith-based content than there is now. TV series like The Chosen and House of David have shown not only the need and desire for high-quality Christian programming, but that there’s space for it. In film, the success was even greater.
2025 brought us such quality films as Soul on Fire, David, and one of my favorites, Light of the World. Through crowdfunding, prayer, and support, according to the director’s statement, Daniel & The Fiery Furnace was created to explore an area of Biblical text that hasn’t been seen in a feature.
Daniel and The Fiery Furnace, written and directed by Matthew and Daniel Kooman, covers the first three chapters of the Book of Daniel. After Nebuchadnezzar (Elijah Alexander) overthrew Judah, the king brought articles from the temple of God, King Jehoiakim, and a group of nobles to serve him in Babylon. Among those nobles were Daniel (Mena Massoud), Hananiah (Öncel Camci), Mishael (Adam Lahraoui), and Azariah (Zaki Ali). King Nebuchadnezzar’s chief official renamed them: Daniel became Belteshazzar; Hananiah, Shadrach; Mishael, Meshach; and Azariah, Abednego.
One of the most beautiful things technology can do is breathe life into text. Seeing the ark of the covenant law, examples of detestable idolatry in Babylon, and the 90ft-high image of gold Nebuchadnezzar made to be worshiped was extraordinary. AI (artificial intelligence) and VFX were used heavily in the film to display things like the ark, idols, and various action sequences.
Now, more than ever, accuracy is of the utmost importance, especially when telling stories in the Bible. The accents in the film were… what they were. But more importantly, a story about Babylon was reflected in brown people. With few exceptions, the vast majority of the Bible takes place across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Minor. So when countless studios decide to tell these stories, the bulk of the cast is usually white, doing the Bible a disservice. Here, Babylon is represented by a large swath of melanated actors. This makes for a more unique and accurate experience. A good use of creative license was the way Daniel and his friends were made to sacrifice their “temptations.” There’s no biblical evidence that they underwent castration, but they were placed under the authority of the chief of the eunuchs.
As great as it was to see a new project of this caliber, some areas were unsatisfactory. I never saw a disclaimer that AI was used when it was promoted on Instagram, but it’s definitely noticeable in the film. There was a scene with drummers that didn’t match the music (they were noticeably offbeat). Where there was violence, some of the scenes were poorly executed. If someone was supposed to be struck by a weapon or a fist, there was no physical contact. For the credit I just gave in diversity, that was only meant for the townspeople. It’s almost comical that America will seemingly never get over its white savior obsession, but this essentially ruined the big buildup.
The film itself is a slow burn, preparing viewers for the climactic point where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the furnace. Had they kept the “mysterious” fourth figure as a silhouette, it would’ve been conveyed more powerfully than gradually exposing a, you guessed it, White Messiah. Then there was the creative license in making Daniel and the prophet Jeremiah friends, Jeremiah having a sister, and having Daniel land on the king’s radar by slaying a lion. None of this is mentioned in the Bible or, more importantly, needed to tell the story (a big issue I took with The Chosen years back).
There’s a lot of dialogue. A lot. There’s more excitement compacted into the trailer than the film itself. But again, the good I mentioned above slightly outweighs the bad. We have the benefit of seeing things that were once only possible via the imagination, and there’s always the chance that the nonbeliever will see such a project and take interest in the Bible. As the industry widens its embrace of faith-based films and AI levels the playing field of creativity, directors will need to be more diligent with their projects.
Daniel and the Fiery Furnace gets a 7 out of 10. In the first hour of the film, a slew of things take place without explanation. This makes what’s happening almost impossible to follow. The film plods along at a slow pace, making the copious dialogue hard to digest at certain points. The last 20 minutes were cool, but was it worth sitting through an hour and a half of buildup? To quote the great television wordsmith Randy Jackson, “That’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.”
Daniel and the Fiery Furnace premieres in theaters on Friday, September 18.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Ekkl Entertainment
Genre: Biblical Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: September 18, 2026