'House of David' Season 2 Provides the Next Chapter in David's Journey

Michael Iskander in House of David, Season 2. Photo image courtesy of Wonder Project.
As the Biblical drama House of David returns for its highly anticipated second season, audiences are invited to dig deeper into the unfolding story of a young shepherd stepping into his destiny.

Picking up after David’s victory over Goliath, Season 2, available now on Prime Video, seeks to expand the scale and intensity of the first season by exploring themes of loyalty, power, and faith as David navigates the growing tension surrounding his future as Israel’s king.

Starring Michael Iskander (David), Ali Suliman (King Saul), and Yali Topol Margalith (Mirab), the series was created by the Wonder Project and is co-directed by Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn.

I recently sat down with Gunn to discuss bringing this epic story to life for 21st Century audiences, the cinematic scope and emotional depth at the heart of the series, and what viewers can expect from this next chapter in David’s journey.

The response to House of David, Season 1 was amazing. Why do you think your production of this story resonated with so many viewers via Prime?

It's been really incredible to see. Fifty-seven million people have watched the show so far. And it's really gratifying because I think the reason people are enjoying it is the very reason we wanted to tell it. We wanted to find a very human and relatable way to share these very epic Biblical stories and to ground them in family relationships. That's why we call it House of David. This is a Bible story that you know very well, and you know how it ends. We were able to sort of drop ourselves into the relationships, the emotion, and the urgency of the moment. And that humanizes it in a way that makes it charming. It makes it funny. It makes it relatable in all the ways that we experience things in modern day life. We all feel frustration like David does with our father that won't let us go live our destiny, or jealousy with our siblings. The heart and soul of the show is that we came at it wanting to honor the source material and wanting to bring humanity to it in every way possible.

What types of things did you do to make the story really come alive on screen and create mass appeal for the 21st Century audience?

First and foremost, we wanted to deliver on all of the scope and scale that you want from an adventure like this. But we also wanted to honor the Biblical material so that you would get the moments that you've read and are familiar with. And then beyond that, we wanted to fill in the gaps to try and figure out what would it feel like to be in this moment? What might these characters have been processing, working through, feeling or fighting against? Once we were able to really sit in it, think about it, and process it that way, it became more and more human. And that's really the goal. So, when people watch it, they feel things genuinely, not just ideas, not just concepts. We wanted to deliver the feelings of what those characters were living and do it in a way that was set against this massive backdrop that had all the fun of people fighting on horses with swords and riding across vast landscapes.

David’s story has become shorthand for being the ultimate underdog. That is something so many people see in themselves. But David wasn’t an overnight success. Could you share with me the richness of his life’s journey of becoming who he was meant to be?

I think David was so much more than an underdog. It's interesting that we tend to think about the David and Goliath part of his story, right? Many people see that as the ending in many ways. But it really was just the beginning. And for our series, I think this is a story much more about a young man seeking his destiny, and in finding it, recognizing the cost of that destiny. And like you said, he is not an overnight success. For many people, this is the truth where you go like, I feel called towards something now. What are the steps I'm going to have to take to achieve that? And what is the cost of that? That's where the real drama of the show comes. It’s the cost of David's destiny and the very long journey it took to get there.

Can you share a story or two from filming Season 2 that your viewers and fans will appreciate?

What was really satisfying for us was that we wanted to pick up Season 2 exactly where season one left off. This was very ambitious because Season 1 left off with David defeating Goliath, and that's exactly one small guy against one big guy. What you don't think about is what happened right after that moment.

And now David's on a battlefield with hundreds of thousands of soldiers crashing towards each other, and he's right in the middle of all of it. And that is the perfect metaphor for the whole season for us, because David is about to realize that slaying the giant is only the very beginning of a journey that's going to come at a great personal cost. Bear in mind that he's a shepherd, not a soldier. He's not a warrior. So, he has to survive the battlefield. And our first episode of Season 2, the entire episode is the Battle of the Valley. And then, how David survives that battle, and how he's going to learn to become the warrior he needs to be as a result of having slain Goliath. How does he step into his destiny?

I think you found a gem in Michael Iskander to play the role of David. Can you share what he brings to the table as an actor that makes your life much easier as a director?

It's always so important to find the right person for a role. And when you do find the right person for a role, it makes everything easier. We searched for many, many, months, sifting through thousands of people to try and find the right David. And when we finally found Michael, Jon Erwin and I both just knew instantly. This was our kid in all the right ways. We tried casting with real authenticity in the show. He was born in Egypt. He's also a person of faith. So, he had a real connection in his heart to the material. He also can sing beautifully, which was so important for David as a warrior poet, who plays his music for the king. Michael can sing in Hebrew and he has the dialect and it's so powerful when he sings.

And he threw the discus in high school. So, he had the physicality for the sling in a way that was absolutely astonishing. His work ethic has been incredible. His dedication to the role, his heart, his essence is exactly what David needs to be. And by the way, as an actor he had never been on camera before. This was his very first acting role on camera. And so, we got to shape this character much in the way that David, as a character, is being shaped from the beginning to become the lead of a show like this is much like David becoming a warrior and a king.

What you said about Michael throwing the discus is so interesting. I never would've considered that when casting a role.

It was incredible. He took to that (throwing stones with a sling) so well. He trained for months on the sling so he could do it himself. He has incredible accuracy, incredible distance. He really got that down and it was super helpful that he had the history of throwing discus.

In your role as director, have you learned anything new about David or his life that has galvanized or strengthened your belief in humanity?

One of the things that reinforced for me in a really powerful way about David was his humility. I think because we all know that David, first of all, rose up as a shepherd, sort of had this destiny thrust upon him in many ways, but also in his later years in particular, made a lot of terrible mistakes. But what's so powerful about David, both as a man, as a shepherd, as a warrior, and as a king, is that he constantly came back to his faith and came back with humility when he made mistakes. He acknowledged them. In fact, he lamented them in front of the whole world in the Psalms. There is something really beautiful about a person, even when given great power, who's willing to say, I alone am not enough. I am fallible. I will make mistakes. And owning up to those mistakes, I found that very inspirational.

After viewers have had a chance to watch an episode or hopefully the entire series, what would you like to see people get out of that experience? What is your greatest hope for the series?

My greatest hope is we want to entertain people with a story that they absolutely love watching. And I will tell you that thousands of people have been writing that they've watched this show six or seven times already. What I want as a writer, as a director, as a storyteller, is for people to feel deeply connected to the characters. And as I've gone out and met the fans, done a bunch of press for the show, and read the comments online, I just love how much they adore these characters and feel like they are family to them. My greatest hope is that people feel connected to David’s world, the story, the characters, and the family of the story. And I think that's really working and makes me super happy.

It's a testament to our actors. They're all so incredibly talented and dedicated to these roles. They inhabit them with so much honesty, humanity, and vulnerability. And so, I couldn't be more pleased with that. And, and every time I read or hear someone talk about how they feel so connected to these people, it brings me a lot of joy, honestly. That’s because it's so much work that we do. And so, when you do the work and you get the result you're hoping for and beyond, it's super gratifying.

As we close things out today, what does the rest of 2026 hold for you?

We have many things brewing at Wonder Project. Wonder Project is a studio and a distribution platform. So, we are writing, developing, and producing many movies and TV series that we think our audience is going to really love. We do have Young Washington coming out in theaters in July. We've also got a great family comedy coming out in May called The Breadwinner with Nate Bartgatze. We are writing and planning a number of productions over the next year that you'll start seeing on the Wonder Project Platform in the next 12 to 18 months.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR HOUSE OF DAVID, SEASON 2: