Was Brigham Young involved in plotting the death of Mormon founder Joseph Smith? Did he order the Mountain Meadows Massacre? Just who was this religious leader who became Utah’s first territorial governor?

These are a few of the questions “Becoming Brigham,” a new faith-based docuseries, aims to answer.

For the media project, historians travel the United States in search of the “real Brigham Young,” the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Project co-creator Daniel Peterson, a former professor at church-owned Brigham Young University and president of The Interpreter Foundation, said the goal is to show Young in his entirety, highlighting the good, the bad and the uncomfortable truths.

“We have deliberately tried to look at the hard questions,” he said in an interview. “There are a lot of good things to say about Brigham Young. … I’m an active, believing member of the church … and I want people to understand that clearly, but we have very deliberately sought out the difficult questions. We don’t want to avoid any.”

The apologist series will cover topics such as Young’s leadership in early Utah, his conflicts with Native American tribes, his views on race and slavery, and the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, which Peterson described as “the worst blot on Latter-day Saint history.”

Peterson said he anticipates the web series having more than 70 weekly episodes. Various historians who have studied Young’s life and early church history will be featured in each 20-or-so-minute segment.

One of these historians, LaJean Carruth, said in a news release, that she wants people see a different side of Young, especially the one featured in his own letters and writing.

“Those of us who have worked with Brigham Young’s words … we see a completely different man, a kinder man. A caring man. A loving man,” Carruth said. “He wanted to serve God, and he strove with everything he had to lead the Saints.”

Seen as a Mormon Moses and the most famous polygamist of the Western world, Young has also drawn attention from scholars outside of the Utah-based faith.

John Turner, author of “Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet,” said when he first started studying the early Utah leader, he was surprised by the “complex character” Young presented.

“As an outsider to the [Latter-day Saint] tradition, one of the things that really surprised me about him was his spiritual fervor, especially when he was a pretty young man,” Turner said. “I think … a lot of his harder edges developed in the wake of Joseph Smith’s murder, which I think he found personally traumatizing and was really determined not to let what happened in Nauvoo repeat itself.”

In the docuseries’ first episode, released Jan. 26, Peterson along with two hosts, actors Camrey Bagley Fox and John Donovan Wilson, explored the first theory on their list: investigating the slaying of Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844.

Peterson and the two hosts visited Carthage Jail in Illinois and detailed the events leading to his death.

According to Peterson, some theories alleged that Young was involved in orchestrating the death of Smith. Peterson, however, said in the episode that the theory did not align with historical documents and eyewitness accounts — a position supported by independent historians.

“I learned about, and I kind of knew it before, [Brigham’s] total dedication to carrying out Joseph Smith’s vision,” Peterson said in an interview. “He was completely loyal, completely.”

With over 40 of the episodes in postproduction, Peterson said, the docuseries will be posted weekly for the next 18 months.