Matthew (The Chosen)

Matthew is a main character in the Christian historical drama series The Chosen.

Behind the scenes
The Chosen is based on the canonical gospels of the Bible. Its aim was to create a bingeable multi-season series about the life of Jesus while also retaining as much historical and Biblical context as possible. Matthew is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus.

The series' creator Dallas Jenkins has a daughter on the autism spectrum. Based on what is presented in the gospels, he considers it not impossible that Matthew could have been autistic.

Kaelyn Reese, a teenager with Asperger's, wrote to the producers about her connection with Matthew's character and how it brought her closer to God. She also plays the cello and put herself forward if they ever needed a cellist. Although they didn't strictly need one since composer Matt Nelson is a world-class cellist, they took her up on the offer and invited her to record a cello piece for a scene.

Autism
The series takes place in 1st century Galilee, before autism as a diagnostic category existed, hence Matthew is never labelled as such within the series itself. However him being autistic is something that's been stated multiple times by both the actor and the producers.