AMC has released the first trailer for the Preacher television series. Based on the outstanding Preacher comics by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, the television show is being written and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. A wonderful combination of heady writing, bizarre characters, and grotesque violence, the comics are some of my all-time favorites. When the show was announced, I was excited and apprehensive. The trailer, embedded below, gives a clearer picture of where the show is heading, but I shall continue to temper my excitement with caution.
The clip shows Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer (the titular preacher), Joseph Gilgun as the vampiric Cassidy, and Ruth Negga as Tulip. As far as the protagonists go, Jesse and Tulip don’t really look the way the comic-book characters do in my head, but I could get used to them if they play the parts right. Cassidy seems on point, with his high-pitched voice and Irish charm. Considering that this is the first trailer for the series, not a lot was shown, but the clip did indicate that the show would be as wacky and violent as the comics were. Hopefully the next trailer has more scenes with The Saint of Killers and Arseface.
Again, since this was the first footage AMC has released, this was more of a teaser than anything else. With that in mind, it did make me more curious about the show. While Walking Dead has been a popular television show for AMC, there are some purists that are…unhappy with the liberties the showrunners have taken. I’m hoping that Rogen and Goldberg are fanboy enough to stick as close to the source material as possible while deftly adapting parts of the comics that translate poorly to television.
I have faith that Rogen and Goldberg will make a supreme effort to make Preacher nerds proud, but I also worry about the scale of the whole thing. Preacher was one of the most unique and brilliant comics ever made. Adapting it to television — without pissing off fanboys — seems like an extremely difficult task. While it was nice to finally see a trailer for Preacher, I remain apprehensively excited. How about you guys and gals? Please share your thoughts on the trailer in the comments section.
Preacher will premiere on AMC in 2016.
I’m not really interested in a show about a Catholic (judging by the costume) priest that performs graphic acts of violence. The religious aspect just seems unnecessary.
Religion is a huge part of the storyline. I’m talking Christianity on a macro level — God, heaven, angels, etc.