Jack Black to play Satan in 'Dear Santa' Christmas movie
Actor Jack Black, whose off-camera resume includes leading a mass prayer to Satan and mocking Christian opposition to same-sex marriage, is reportedly set to star in a Christmas movie about — you guessed it — Satan.
Black, 53, whose real name is Thomas Jacob Black, is set to star in "Dear Santa," a Christmas comedy from Bobby and Peter Farrelly, the duo behind hits like "Kingpin" and "There’s Something About Mary," according to Deadline.
The plotline reportedly involves a young boy who inadvertently writes a letter to Satan instead of Santa for Christmas, in a twist reminiscent of a scene from last year’s Disney+ spinoff series “The Santa Clauses” in which young children dressed as elves hold up letters spelling out the words, "We love you, Satan."
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Black is slated to play the role of Satan, according to IMDb.
While "Dear Santa" is still in its early stages, the cast is reported to include Robert Timothy Smith, Keegan-Michael Key, Brianne Howey, Hayes MacArthur and more.
No release date has been announced.
Reps for Black did not respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post as of Tuesday afternoon.
The project — which was originally sold in 2012 as “Dear Satan” — will mark a reunion of sorts between Black and the Farrelly brothers, who first teamed up in 2001 for the comedy "Shallow Hal" with Gwenyth Paltrow.
Black, along with Kyle Gass, is also a founding member of the metal duo Tenacious D, whose songs include odes to the devil like "Beelzeboss" and 2001’s "Tribute," which portrays the band’s encounter with a demonic figure who threatens to take their souls if the duo can’t play "the best song in the world.”
Satan also figures prominently in the duo’s 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, in which the band challenges the devil — played by Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl — to a “rock-off.”
In addition to his music and movies, Black has also openly mocked both Jesus Christ and Christians, such as when he took part in a 2008 satire video called "Prop 8: The Musical," which took aim at opponents of California’s same-sex marriage law.
As part of the video, Jesus, played by Black, intervenes in a debate between pro- and anti-Prop 8 Christians, and remarks, "The Bible says a lot of things, you know?"
Black, portraying Jesus, goes on to say, "Leviticus also says shellfish is an abomination" and that the "Bible says a lot of interesting things like you can stone your wife or sell your daughter into slavery."
Black’s movies have frequently involved rock music, and with that theme comes frequent allusions to satanic symbols such as the “devil’s horn” hand gesture, which Black uses in School of Rock and Pick of Destiny.
In a promotional stunt for the video game Brutal Legend, Black led a satanic prayer at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards as a tribute to metal music.
During the show, Black took the stage as his Brutal Legend character Eddie Riggs and said, “Since we’re giving a rock award tonight, who wants to pray to the devil with me?”
He then told the audience to take the hand of someone next to them and then prayed on stage, “Dear Dark Lord Satan … I wanted to say hi and ask you to grant tonight’s nominees continued success in the music industry.”
An IMDb satire news article from 2002 even has a “tongue firmly in cheek” headline, “Jack Black loves Satan,” in which the star is described as an “unashamed worshipper of Satan.”
Black is quoted in the article clip as saying, “I love Satan. Christianity is so boring. If Star Wars didn't have that evil imprint, they wouldn't sell two tickets. Satan sells tickets. That dude, Darth Maul, he was down with Satan.”
While Black was raised Jewish — he recounted in a 2022 podcast that he caught the acting bug as a young boy while attending a Passover seder — he told NPR in 2012 that he considers himself “kind of an atheist.”
"I don't have any real spirituality in my life — I'm kind of an atheist — but when music can take me to the highest heights, it's almost like a spiritual feeling. It fills that void for me,” he told NPR’s Terry Gross.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.
