Satan has been officially cast out from the film adaption of "The Bible" TV miniseries due, in part, to the character's resemblance to President Barack Obama. The producers of "Son of God" said in an opinion piece on USA Today, "This is now a movie about Jesus, the Son of God, and the devil gets no more screen time, no more distractions."
Many viewers of the hit History Channel miniseries were struck by the similarity between actor Mohamen Mehdi Ouazzani and the 44th President of the United States.
The History channel producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey were forced to respond to the controversy after multiple news outlets picked up the story. “History channel has the highest respect for President Obama," they said in a statement. "It's unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History's 'The Bible' is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history."
Downey blames Satan himself for the comparison. She elaborated on the incident on Monday, writing, "The devil was also in that episode. Someone made a comment that the actor who played the devil vaguely resembled our president, and suddenly the media went nuts. It went global, showing up all over TV and the Internet. That next day, when I was sure everyone would only be talking about Jesus, they were talking about Satan instead."
To eliminate that issue, she said, "It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting room floor."