The New Pope picks up right where The Young Pope left off . In this series, Jude Law and John Malkovich play Popes. Now, that's a word we rarely hear pluralized especially when it is referring to the same time period. In the world of the papacy, there is only one Pope at a time...until now. " The two stories run parallel , " the creator, Paolo Sorrentino, told GQ. "It's a series with two lead characters — Jude Law and John Malkovich — and both of them factor in." We're not sure how this is going to work out, which makes us all the more intrigued.