Sequel to hit Christian movie ‘I Can Only Imagine’ gets latest release date

The release date for the faith-based film “I Can Only Imagine 2,” the sequel to the 2018 box office hit, is moving from March 20, 2026, to Feb. 20, 2026, Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company have announced.

The faith-based sequel continues the powerful true story of Bart Millard (John Finley), lead singer of the Christian band MercyMe, and is filming in Nashville, Tennessee. The forged includes Milo Ventimiglia, Arielle Kebbel, Joshua Bassett, Sophie Skelton and Sammy Dell, alongside returning stars Trace Adkins and Dennis Quaid.

Directed by Andrew Erwin and Brent McCorkle, the film relies on a screenplay by McCorkle. Producers include Kevin Downes, Andrew Erwin, Cindy Bond, Bart Millard, Daryl Lefever and Joshua Walsh.

Released in 2018, “I Can Only Imagine” became a breakout success, earning greater than $83 million on the domestic box office. The first film delved into Millard’s troubled past, his father’s transformation through faith, and the creation of “I Can Only Imagine,” the bestselling Christian single of all time. 

The sequel, Downes confirmed, will follow MercyMe’s next chapter and the song that defined it.

“The song that we give attention to starts with ‘Imagine,’ so you are going to get all of the feels of the peak of ‘I Can Only Imagine’ when it was released,” Downes told The Christian Post. “And then the song it finally ends up tracking is their second biggest hit, which was called ‘Even If.’ I really like the script — there are such a lot of entry points character-wise into it.”

Downes told CP the creative team behind the film believes “I Can Only Imagine 2” will resonate just as strongly as the unique. “We know the film goes to be good,” he said. “I can not wait. It’s going to be great.”

MercyMe’s “Even If” was one other chart-topping song that offered a poignant message of religion within the face of suffering. The song was inspired by Millard’s experience together with his son’s illness, a deeply personal struggle that shaped the band’s music and ministry. 

“My son, Sam, is 15 years old, and he’s been a diabetic since he was 2. When you are a parent of a baby with any form of chronic illness, these items don’t go away. You have quite a lot of good days, but some days you are feeling such as you’re losing bad. I used to be within the midst of one in all those bad days when ‘Even If’ was written,” Millard previously said of the song.

In 2018, Millard applauded filmmakers for doing what he termed a “great job with a redemption story”.

“It’s form of scary making a faith-based film. I didn’t want it to be low-hanging fruit or form of a corny movie, and I feel they did a extremely great job of capturing the emotion. There were some scenes for me, in watching the film, that made me really uncomfortable — because I used to be form of reliving it, and I feel that is an indication of a job well done.”

“I Can Only Imagine 2” comes on the heels of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” directed by Dallas Jenkins, which remodeled $32 million on the domestic box office and $26.4 million worldwide. The film was a box office success, surpassing expectations and tripling its budget of under $10 million.

At the red carpet premiere of the film, Andy Erwin told CP that Kingdom Story Company desires to create movies that highlight hope and redemption, each to Christian and mainstream audiences.

“Redemption is on the core of every part we do; it must be concerning the idea of redemption that promotes hope,” he said. “I feel those are the stories that, for us as people of religion, really speak to us, but additionally they invite an out of doors audience to actually understand what we imagine. We’ve tried to search out different varieties of that form of stories.”

© The Christian Post