An evil dragon. 

A soldier-saint. 

Good versus evil is at the heart of the new podcast series Firebreaker. 

The Catholic video production company Coronation Media released the first episode of a podcast retelling the legend of early Roman martyr St. George. The series stars Disney Channel Catholic actor David Henrie from Wizards of Waverly Place and Elizabeth Tabish from The Chosen, with a score written by Kevin Kaska.  

“My kids are in need of good content, and the team behind this is wonderful people. I wanted to work with wonderful people and make something my kids could listen to,” Henrie told the Register in a July 9 interview.

The first episode is now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Episodes are set to come out every two weeks.  

The 11-part series tells the story of a Cappadocian soldier, George, played by Henrie, and Silenian Princess Aia, played by Tabish. Orphaned during a dragon attack in Cappadocia, George grows up to be a Roman soldier. When the princess’ city of Silene is plagued by Kakos, an evil dragon demanding human sacrifice, George must join the princess and Silenian rebels to save the city.  

The story draws from the Golden Legend and other traditions about St. George, a Roman soldier known in the medieval Catholic tradition for fighting a dragon and for his martyrdom. 

“In the Middle Ages, they took St. George, imagined his story within the context of their time, and gave it meaning and richness and some level of fantasy,” said Gary Gasse, co-founder of Coronation Media. “We wanted to do the same thing.” 

As the father of two young boys, Gasse said he was drawn to telling a “swashbuckling adventure story” two years ago. He said he envisioned Catholic material that entertains and enlightens young audiences rather than “preaching to them.” 

Founded in 2012, Coronation Media is a Catholic production company with the intention “to nurture fresh creative voices, recover beauty in places where it is stagnant, celebrate human flourishing, and give life to important missions,” according to its website. 

“What we’re trying to do with Firebreaker is to create something that is lasting and beautiful and will bear fruit for years to come, even if that’s something we don’t live to see. Firebreaker is the start of that,” said Bill Phillips, co-founder of Coronation Media and executive producer of Firebreaker. 

Phillips said Firebreaker is Coronation Media’s first independent project, and they hope the audio drama will be an introduction to a story to potentially turn into an animated feature.  

Father and son Jim and Dominic Morlino worked with Coronation Media to write the script for the podcast. 

“We tried to approach the story in a way that that would resonate with a Catholic audience who would recognize the Christianity in the story, but also with a non-Catholic or nonbelieving audience for whom the story would simply resonate as a tale of good against evil,” Jim said. 

Jim has also produced the films St. Bernadette of Lourdes and The War of the Vendee, both of which have been broadcast on EWTN.  

“I have not been hesitant to say that in all the things that I have created or helped to work on in my career, I have not been prouder of something than this project,” Jim said.  

Dominic said the story follows the preexisting traditions surrounding St. George told in an “exciting and interesting” way.  

“All these stories of good and evil — the swashbuckling, the heroes, the dragons — in a way, they’re all one, and they repeat throughout history in different forms,” Dominic said. “The cycles repeat, and those stories are influenced by other stories. Everything is new, and everything is the same.” 

Phillips said the story makes clear distinctions between good and evil, intentionally removing moral “gray areas” so that children and families can discuss the story together. 

Dominic said the team was intentional in not presenting the dragon in a sympathetic light. Rather, the character, who speaks in poetry, embodies temptation and sin and emphasizes the enticing but empty promises of evil, he said.  

Musical composer Kevin Kaska has contributed to over 100 motion pictures, including The Lion King, The Greatest Showman, and The Life of Pi, and his music has been performed by over 80 orchestras around the world. He wrote Firebreaker’s soundtrack to convey the series’ specific themes and storylines.  

Kaska worked with Jim Morlino to create music to accompany each episode. Using a notational program, Kaska created the score and worked with an orchestra in Budapest over Zoom to record the music. 

“The music has to support what is happening in the story so that the audience can see ‘Oh, wow, there's a dragon there. Oh, there's a fight going on. Oh, there's a horse race,’ — So that gives you a sense of a time and place and a feel for that world,” Kaska said. 

Kaska said composer-created music, rather than stock music, can create a more epic atmosphere and better emphasize the story’s medieval, fantasy setting.  

“I think, for us, the success for Firebreaker is that it opens up conversations in a family setting where children can have a firm foundation of what it means to be a hero,” Phillips said. “Both the character of George and Princess Aia are good role models for boys and girls and do it in a way that’s not going to pose any challenges to what it means to be a hero.” 

Henrie, who is very vocal about his own Catholic faith on social media, said the story will teach children to face challenges in their own lives.  

“There will be obstacles to overcome, typically embodied by some fairy-tale foe, like a monster or a dragon, and that is holding them back from their potential, but they shouldn't be afraid of it; or, even if they are afraid, that’s okay,” Henrie told the Register. “As long as they still strive to overcome what’s holding them back from what they want to achieve, I think this story does a great job at teaching children that lesson, which is so important, now more than ever.” 

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Firebreaker