Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins Run the Church in Netflix’s The Two Popes Trailer

From Netflix’s slate of original features comes an intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of papal power in the last 2,000 years. Inspired by true events, Fernando Meirelles (City of God) directs The Two Popes.

Jonathan Pryce takes on the role of Cardinal Bergoglio, Pope Benedict’s (played by Westworld’s Anthony Hopkins) successor. Frustrated with the direction of the church, he requests permission to retire in 2012 from the papacy. Bergoglio, the Pope’s harshest critic, is invited to Rome to be told of a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church, should it be revealed—a horrifying situation, as the trailer shows that secret documents alleging corruption and misconduct have been leaked to the press. The Two Popes follows the journey of Pope Benedict and the future Pope Francis as the two men decide the future of the Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion believers.

The trailer depicts the two most powerful men in the Church as just that: men. They talk about morality, sin, fear and what it means to be the Pope between pizza and herb identification; as the Pope tells Bergoglio, “Being Pope, you must remember that you are not God. You are only human.”

Written by three-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything), the film has been well-received by critics and won five film fest audience awards.

The Two Popes rolls out in a limited theatrical release on Nov. 27 and makes its Netflix debut on Dec. 20. Check out the trailer (and poster) below.