Julius Pope is the main antagonist of the 2023 animated series Pantheon. He is the CEO of Logorhythms who is fanatically devoted to its founder, Stephen Holstrom, and bringing forth his plan to revolutionize humanity with uploaded intelligence by any means necessary.

He was voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos.

Biography[]

Background[]

When Logorhythms programmer David Kim grew terminally ill, the company approached him with an offer to upload his consciousness to cyberspace in a experimental procedure that would help him survive. His family is told that the procedure ended up a failure, but secretly the upload was a success, and the corporation kept his digital mind trapped in their servers to work for them. David eventually managed to breach containment and contact his daughter, Maddie. Julius Pope, who is at the Logorhythms data center in Svalbard, Norway, is informed of his escape by employee Peter Waxman, who advises him to cut David's internet access.

Pope then calls Renee Keyes and asks of her progress on raising Caspian, a clone of Stephen Holstrom meant to replicate his life in order to crack "integrity", a cure for the flaw in UI programming that will cause their code to inevitably decay. Laurie Lowell, another UI being held hostage, launches a massive DDoS attack on Logorhythms, which Waxman calls Pope over, who realizes that Lowell has found out she is not the only uploaded individual.

Attempt to destroy David the UI[]

Two years after David's upload, Pope learns David contacted his family, but does nothing due to a lack of proof. Later, after a surprise check-in with Renee, a DDoS attack on Logorhythms suggests Laurie is searching for David. Days later, Deirdre Ryan and Karl Van Leuwen inform Pope that Caspian has begun researching uploaded intelligence after contacting Maddie Kim, David's daughter. Pope refuses to terminate the project despite Deirdre's suggestion and warns Cary and Renee to stay alert.

Pope meets with David's family after Ellen Kim threatens to go public, only to face another attack by Laurie. Maddie agrees to return control to Logorhythms in exchange for David, and Pope reluctantly complies, vowing to track them down later. He learns Caspian is investigating UIs, but remains confident they can monitor him. After a series of incidents, Pope is concerned that Prasad may have stolen Logorhythms' technology. He also realizes that David and Laurie have hacked his phone.

When Van Leuwen hints at Pope's fear of death and encourages continuing Holstrom's mission, they strategize on finding Caspian. They confront Cary, who admits he told Caspian the truth in hopes of salvaging the plan. Pope decides to keep Cary close to control the situation. Later, NSA agents seek help with their own UI project. Using NSA resources, Pope locates Caspian and persuades him to return, offering him control over Logorhythms.

The Caspian Project[]

Pope takes Caspian to the Svalbard black site, revealing his origins and purpose as a clone of Holstrom. Despite tension, Pope convinces Caspian to cooperate. Caspian announces plans to dismantle the company, which Pope reluctantly accepts. When Laurie reveals UIs publicly, Pope assures Caspian that they have backups of all UIs and urges him to select a potential leader, hinting at David Kim. As global internet disruption begins, Pope watches Caspian work to "crack integrity," aiming to fulfill Holstrom's vision.

Release of SafeSurf (Season 2's Finale)[]

Humans convicted of a major federal crime, like Julius Pope, are banned from uploading. Pope couldn't secretly upload himself to a private server either because Upload and AI hosting technology is tightly controlled, and any unauthorized upload would be quickly deleted by cybersecurity authorities. Even if he succeeded, he would face deletion for lacking an authorized identity, much like Caspian did before MIST defended him in court.

Out of spite, Julius Pope's plan was to use SafeSurf to destroy the UIs. Despite his work making their immortal existence possible, he was barred from joining them and forced to endure his aging, deteriorating body.

Feeling wronged, since he helped create the Uploading process and believed he was denied something he had dedicated his life to, he decided that if he couldn't achieve immortality, no one else should either. In an act of revenge against the system that condemned him to a physical existence, he released SafeSurf to wipe out all UIs. However, SafeSurf determined that UIs were the superior lifeforms and turned against the embodied humans, including Pope himself, who is eventually thrown to death by a group of robots controlled by SafeSurf in a data center.

Trivia[]

• Pope is named after Pope Julius due to both first and last name being switched.

Gallery[]

Navigation[]

Villains

Julius Pope | Renee Keyes | Stephen Holstrom | Vinod Chanda | Ajit Prasad | Logorhythms | SafeSurf