Julius Pope

"I work for you now." - Julius Pope to Caspian.

Julius Pope is a main character in the AMC+ animated drama, Pantheon. He is portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos.

Julius is the CEO of Logorhythms and was one of Stephen Holstrom's closest friends.

Character[]

Pope is the prime mover behind the conspiracy to furnish corporate investors with partially uploaded versions of their star employees as an interim step on the path to full immortality. Pope is a "true believer" in Holstrom's vision of digital immortality.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Pope helped Holstrom build Logorhythms from the ground up. While he was critical of Holstrom's choices in the beginning, he gradually grew to take Holstrom's word for it after the company became successful. When Holstrom suggested they find a way to upload human minds onto the cloud, he fully backs him. Unfortunately, early in the process, a flaw was detected in which a UI degrades the faster they process. He worked with Holstrom to fix it, but his friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer before a cure could be found.

As a backup, Holstrom created Project Caspian, cloning himself and having two Logorhythms employees- Cary Duvall and Renee- act as his parents. The two would report the clone's progress to him. Pope took over as CEO of Logorhythms.

Almost two decades later, Pope receives word that a stock broker was critically injured in a car crash and convinces her husband to let them upload her to save her mind. The procedure was successful, however they lied to Cody and gave Laurie's upload to her company, Shire and Stern. A year later, he okayed for David Kim to be uploaded, lying to his family as well.

A Leak in the Project[]

Two years after David’s upload, Pope is informed that he made contact with his family, but does not have anything done as they cannot prove anything. Later, he has a surprise check in with Renee on Caspian. However she tells him she would prefer a scheduled check in as she lacked her notes. A day later, Logorhythms experiences a D-DOS attack and he believes Laurie is looking for David.

A few days later, as Renee and Cary are updating Pope on Caspian, Deirdre Ryan and Karl Van Leuwen enter Pope's office and inform him Caspian has started looking into uploaded intelligence after making contact with Maddie Kim, David’s daughter. Pope informs Caspian's parents of the news and Deirdre suggests they terminate the project, however Pope is angered by the comment and refuses to do so as he promised Holstrom they would crack integrity. He tells Cary and Renee that they will be informed if anything happens and ends the call. Afterwards, Pope speaks with Anssi about David overclocking and they talk about Laurie. Anssi suggests they track down Laurie’s husband, but Pope says he vanished three weeks ago.

After Ellen Kim threatens to go public, Pope flies from Svalbard to Palo Alto to meet with David's family and has Peter Waxman transfer David's code. When mother and daughter enter the room, Pope introduces himself and Ryan. Waxman explains that once they wipe the data, David will be gone, but Pope and Ryan refuse to do so and claim David is their property and that Ellen's power of attorney does not include his mind. As Pope and Ryan say Ellen will lose in court and tarnish her family name, Pope is informed that everything is down and he realizes Laurie is attacking them again. With Logorhythms losing money, Maddie agrees to give them back control in exchange for her father. As they cannot afford to lose money at this rapid rate, Pope reluctantly hands over David and warns Maddie to be careful. Once the Kims leave the premises, Logorhythms gains control. Ryan berates Pope's choice as Pope vows to track them down. Deirdre reminds him that the Lowells have the hardware to run him and expresses concern that two UIs are running free.

Learning of Theft of Technology and Information[]

A few days later, Renee informs him Caspian is looking into UIs, but he tells her to relax as they are monitoring his internet activity and tells her to prepare for the next inflection point, which involves having her arm broken with a hammer. A day later, he is informed that Caspian is close to finding the black site, but Anssi manages to switch out the cashed images before Caspian can take a screenshot. The following day, after the inflection point is carried out, Cary calls to Pope to inform him everything when according to plan and says he will miss Caspian. Pope hangs up as he is about to speak at a tech conference. When he gets off the stage, Ajit Prasad speak with him, hinting that he stole Logorhythms technology on uploaded intelligence, much to Pope's concern. A few years later, Pope learns of Prasad's death as Waxman calls. He informs Waxman of the incident and has him offer Alliance their help.

A few days later, David and Laurie hack into his work phone and drain the battery and has Anssi charge it. He is aware of the hack but lets them do it so that they can be tracked. However, they are given the wrong location and Pope realizes they got in through his phone.

A few days later, Pope is in Holstrom's office when Van Leuwen enters. Van Leuwen deduces that Pope is angry they were hacked and Caspian is missing. Van Leuwen touches on Pope's fear of death and Pope states he hoped to be as brave as Holstrom as he knew he would never be as smart as him. Van Leuwen states that Caspian can still fulfill Holstrom's desire to crack integrity and their goal is not over. Later that day, Van Leuwen informs him that Cary was recently checked into a hospital in Palo Alto by an unknown man. Van Leuwen suggests sending Ryan as she is already in the city.

Searching for Caspian[]

He, Renee, Van Leuwen, and Ryan go to Palo Alto to speak with Cary. Renee tells Cary he is out of the inner circle and Pope brings up that Cary claimed to be shot by a mugger and berate him for revealing the truth to Caspian. Cary says he learned Rachel Brooks, the actress they hired to be Caspian's girlfriend, revealed the truth of her involvement to him and he thought telling Caspian the whole truth was the only way to salvage the plan and that when they find Caspian, he will be the only one the boy will trust. Pope stops Renee from punching Cary and pulls her aside. He tells Renee he does not believe Cary, but wants to control who he talks to and decides to take him back to Norway. A few days later, he is visited by Admiral Kurts and Stephen Gold from the NSA and calls in Waxman for the meeting. Kirts and Gold reveal they are working on uploaded intelligence and need their help as they encountered the flaw. Pope and Waxman act surprised by the knowledge and lie that their research on the topic ended after encountering the flaw. Waxman gets the NSA agents what they need as Pope asks for the NSA to track down Caspian, claiming they could use him on their team for the topic.

Using the NSA's tracking system, they locate Caspian in a convent in Kansas City through a deleted video. Pope goes to the Kansas City and meets with Caspian, pulling the boy aside as he serves food. He tells Caspian Cary is alright and that he has no idea what the teenager is going through despite the psych models. Pope tells him he and Holstrom were friends and Caspian agrees to go with him if he is given full control of Logorhythms and will shut down the UI program and expresses his desire to break it apart. He is surprised how calm Pope is at the mention of dismantling the company and Pope tells Caspian how he was critical of Holstrom's choices in the beginning but by the time Holstrom thought of uploading minds, he would always agree with him. Caspian doubts Pope until Pope says he is scared as Caspian is the only person who could see the world as Holstrom had, and Caspian agrees to go with him. To further gain Caspian’s trust, he gives him thirty million dollars in bitcoin, which Caspian gifts to Maddie.

Bringing the Clone “Home”[]

In Svalbard, Caspian is taken to the black site by Pope and when Anssi describes the power and storage of the facility. Caspian predicts it will take half a month to wipe the servers and walks off, leaving Anssi stunned. He then takes Caspian to his template's office and shows him Holstrom's notes on cracking integrity. Caspian looks at the notes, but asks to see the lab he was born in. He brings Caspian to the lab he was made in and tells the boy he is the only clone of Hostrom. They are greeted by Van Leuwen and Ryan. Caspian backs away from Ryan when she tries to shake his hand and, upon seeing Renee, he picks up a try to defend himself, only backing down when Cary appears. As Pope tries to deescalate the situation, Caspian berates everyone there for trying to groom him to accomplish their own goals. Pope reveals they want to perfect upload so that humanity can have the resources it needs to flourish as it is overpopulated. Caspian fires his fake parents and announce his plans to break up the company. Ryan protests, but Pope gives in.

Later, after Laurie goes public with UIs, Kurts calls him about Waxman confirming the rumors and telling the admiral to arrest Waxman as Caspian mocks Pope by saying the public hates his goals and expresses his belief all the UIs will be deleted. However, Pope reveals they will be saved as they have all been backed up. Pope states the protests are only because Lowell mentioned Hiroshima. As Pope mentions that the governments who have UIs will protect them and those without will get them, he reveals Holstrom wanted one UI to be flawless to rule over the others. Pope tells Caspian to select a potential UI to fill this role and, selecting David Kim, Caspian call Maddie. After Caspian's call to Maddie cuts out, Pope reveals the internet is going down across the globe and Caspian tells him David is gone. Pope reveals they kept a backup of David and, returning to Holstrom's office, he watches as Caspian gets to work cracking integrity.

Appearance[]

Pope is a middle aged man with balding gray hair and blue eyes. He typically wears a blue sweater over a light blue collared shirt , khakis, and dress shoes.

Personality[]

Pope is a cold man with little regard for others, only determined to keep his word to Holstrom to crack integrity. He is willing to kill others at a moment’s notice.

Relationships[]

Stephen Holstrom[]

Pope described Holstrom as his best friend and, while critical of his friend's choices, followed him loyally. The two would often go on outdoor excursions together. On Holstrom's deathbed, Pope promised to achieve his life’s work anyway possible. After Holstrom's death, Pope tried to match his friend’s courage. After Caspian cured the flaw, Pope uploaded Holstrom's cryogenically preserved brain, smiling and holding hands with Renee and Van Leuwen as it is scanned. Pope obeyed the order to kill Caspian and Maddie without question, showing his loyalty to his friend.

Caspian Keyes[]

Despite acting caring towards Caspian, Pope saw his friend's clone solely as a tool to crack integrity. After the teenager found the cure, Pope double crossed Caspian and attempted to kill him and Maddie on Holstrom's orders.

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

There are inconsistencies in Pope’s appearance before the events of the series. At Caspian's birth, he resembled his present self. But as shown in a conference two years after Holstrom's death and when speak with Cody about uploading Laurie, he had hair.