Sebastian Stan’s Marvel breakthrough happened after he played a tormented prince in “Kings,” an intriguing modern-day spin on King David’s story. The 2009 NBC drama was one of the best one-season shows to air, offering plenty of royal family drama to keep audiences hooked.
The series is set in the Kingdom of Gilboa, where King Silas’ (Ian McShane) reign is absolute. As war rages between Gilboa and the Republic of Gath, a fearless farm boy named David (Christopher Egan) stands out on the front lines. When he destroys a Goliath-Class tank and saves the king’s son from enemy territory, Silas’ claim to power is immediately challenged by this younger hero.
Stan played Jack, Silas’ son and the prince of Gilboa. Yet, he is closeted and deeply conflicted by how his sexuality might pose a threat to the expectations imposed on him as a prince and soldier.
“Kings” explored greed, family tensions, and romance, but its ambitious take on a biblical story proved to be ahead of its time. There was nothing like it on broadcast TV when it aired, but NBC canceled it due to low viewership and high production costs.
Why Kings struggled to find an audience
With a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the obvious question is: Where did “Kings” go wrong? According to showrunner Michael Green, NBC’s uncertainty over how to market the series contributed to its downfall. “Ultimately, I think it’s one of the reasons they lost the desire to make a success out of it,” he told Newsarama in 2009. “It’s very easy to say, ‘We have a nice cop show we executed really well for you.’ It’s harder to say, ‘We have a character-based soap that’s got some bizarre elements to it.'”
When Green pitched the series to NBC, he didn’t reveal its connection to the Bible until 15 minutes into the meeting. Once he explained that he wanted to explore the aftermath of David and Goliath’s battle through a present-day lens, NBC was intrigued.
Francis Lawrence, who produced and directed a few episodes of “Kings,” explained that the series contained biblical references but wasn’t purely biblical. “Because it’s based on a biblical story, people say it’s biblical, and it’s really not. It is actually more sci-fi, but I think what throws it out of that genre a little is how familiar it all is,” he told Comingsoon.net.
Whether leaning into the biblical references (as Amazon’s renewed “House of David” did) or abstaining from them entirely would’ve changed the course of the series’ cancellation, audiences can always go back to it to watch Sebastian Stan in one of his best roles before playing Marvel’s Bucky Barnes.
