Speculation surrounding a conclave to elect a pope is a time-honoured tradition.

“Conclave”, the moody political thriller set to release in 2024, introduces audiences to the ancient and ceremonial papal selection process, though with the flair of cinematic intrigue and unexpected plot twists.

“He committed a mortal sin and would be automatically excommunicated. Such an action would be egregiously wrong,” Reese said.

According to Cavanaugh, the notion of a cardinal bribing others for votes, as depicted in the movie, is a complete fiction, and the depicted level of political maneuvering is greatly exaggerated.

Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, pointed out that the film inaccurately portrays cardinals as either staunch liberals or conservatives.

“Those labels don’t help us,” he said because cardinals are very cautious in expressing their opinions and “even someone we think is a liberal cardinal is pretty conservative by secular standards.”

And he added that even in an unusually large conclave like this year’s, the rule requiring the next pope wins at least a two-thirds majority of the vote ensures that “whatever we call extreme” likely won’t get enough votes.