“The stories of the Bible are fantastic,” Kevin Costner said in an interview with America ahead of a new Christmas special airing on ABC this week. “I had this chance to maybe talk about [these stories] in a mildly different way…to maybe reinvest in the story that’s managed to endure all these years, all these centuries.”

In the television special, which airs from 8 to 10 p.m. on Dec. 9 and then starting on Dec. 10 on Hulu, Kevin Costner acts as host and narrator for a dramatic presentation of the Nativity story. “Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas” is pretty much what it says on the tin, a narrativization of the journey that Mary and Joseph take from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Though it’s a tale told countless times before, Mr. Costner hopes that their take on it can teach people a thing or two.

“Maybe you know a little about [the Nativity story], maybe you know a lot,” Mr. Costner says in his introduction to the special, while sipping from a coffee mug and walking around the soundstage. “As a kid was when I first started to learn about the Bible, its stories, the miracles. But it was the first Christmas that seemed to be bigger than all of that.”

“How did it all start?” he proffers. “The story is often portrayed as a baby born in a cozy barn surrounded by animals. But there’s another version: one that starts with a pregnant unwed teenage girl, a shamed lover, a treacherous journey followed by a harrowing birth inside a dark cave.”

This focus on historical accuracy is prevalent throughout the special. Interspersed with the traditional drama of the Nativity are interviews with various scientists, historians, philosophers and priests who are subject matter experts in various relevant fields. They are a diverse group, including individuals of Jewish, Indian and Asian backgrounds. The Rev. Sean Raftis of the Diocese of Helena, Mont., is the Catholic representative. His focus is on extrapolating various theological aspects of the story, for instance, explaining the nature and significance of the Archangel Gabriel. Archeologists and Roman-era scholars offer insight into the political situation at the time, with a particular focus on the despotic Herod the Great.

The special is half-documentary and half-drama. Throughout the feature-length production, Mr. Costner provides steady narration. His voice is often used to point out things that some viewers might not have considered. In the interview, when asked about something he learned over the course of his involvement in the special, he spoke about the ages of Mary and Joseph.

“It was not a ‘I never knew that’ moment; it was an ‘of course that’s the way it was’ moment,” he said. “That was how young they were and…she was unwed. She was pregnant. We start[ed] with that. I wanted to. [Joseph] was ashamed…but then there was a moment in time where they also understood, as teenagers, that they had to protect this child.”

Through the casting, direction, interviews and narration, the special goes to great lengths to emphasize the youth of Mary and Joseph, here portrayed as a pair of youngsters in their mid-teens. This is the most notable feature of this portrayal of the holy family. Mary plays and sings and dances with other girls in Nazareth after her engagement. Joseph is impatient and eager to get married, as well as fearful and wary when Mary reveals her pregnancy. Gia Rose Patel, who plays Mary, and Ethan Thorne, who plays Joseph, both have fresh faces and high-pitched voices, but their innocence and youth get slowly worn away over the course of their journey to Bethlehem as more and more grime cakes on their faces.

This, more than anything, was what drew Mr. Costner to the project. Not unlike his desire in the past to provide a more historically accurate take on the western genre, such as in “Dances with Wolves” and “Horizon,” he seems drawn to the gritty reality of history. The violence of the Romans and Herod are highly emphasized.

“Living in modern society, it is nearly impossible to imagine how barbaric they were,” he narrates. “But things that were maybe considered normal in that time, if you saw them today, it is unlikely you would get over them. Life was not kind or easy.”

Still, Mr. Costner wants the audience to take away a message of hope from the special. Though the drama emphasizes the darkness, it still leads ultimately toward the light.

“Humans have to mark time in some way,” he says in the interview, speaking about Christmas. “We rally around dates, around moments in time, and it helps us as human beings. We haul ass through the rest of the year and then suddenly we slow down for a second.

“I was really happy that we could maybe just slow that moment down, not be an authority of the world of what we’re telling, but take a deeper dive—and take a look that we feel is thoughtful.… 

“It was a privilege for me to be able to at least prop up the religion I believe in.”

Kevin Christopher Robles is the studio production associate at America. He was previously an O'Hare Fellow and intern.