Curious what happens to the power vacuum at the top of the Catholic Church once the pope dies?
The 2024 Oscar-winning film Conclave deals with that exact scenario. If you’re looking for a dramatized version of what the Catholic Church will be doing in wake of Pope Francis’ death at 88, you’d be hard pressed to find one more current. Just one problem: Due to the frustrating and fluid nature of content licensing, you can’t actually stream it via any subscription service right now.
The movie, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow, as cardinals all hiding dirty secrets while vying to be pope, was available to stream on Peacock until very recently. Thanks to a deal between Universal and Amazon Prime Video, though, the title is moving to Prime video—a transition that was in progress right as news of Pope Francis’ passing came out on Monday. Currently, you can rent the film for between $6 and $20 on Prime, or you can wait until 3 am Eastern on Tuesday to watch it on the service for free if you’re a Prime member.
The deal, signed in 2021, means that following their theatrical releases, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group movies head to Peacock for four months, before switching to Prime Video for 10 months, then migrating back to Peacock for the last four months of the “Pay-One” window—the period that follows a theatre release. WIRED has reached out to Amazon to confirm Conclave will stream starting Tuesday and will update this post if we receive a response.
Meanwhile, Bluesky, X, and TikTok are overflowing with bits about the movie—including jokes about how Pope Francis died soon after meeting Vice President J.D. Vance—and how a real-life conclave could work.
