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After screening the exciting pilot for Preacher that’s chock full of ‘tude, showrunner Sam Catlin and stars Dominic Cooper (Agent Carter) and Ruth Negga (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) arrived on the WonderCon stage for happy fun panel time.
Most of the buzz came from the frenetic and creatively choreographed fight scenes, and the inclusion of Eugene AKA Arseface, a character whose name is as literal as it gets and a hashtag waiting to happen.
Before producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg brought it to Catlin, he had never heard of Preacher.
“I’m a grown man, I haven’t read a comic. What do you want?” Catlin said. “This is probably not the right room to say that in.”
Catlin continued: “I’d never heard of it, they gave it to me, and I thought it was incredible, mind blowing. But no way it’s a TV show. Maybe it’s a $400 million movie.”
Instead, it’s a TV show on AMC.
Garth Ennis’ Preacher is one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed comic books ever, and it’s obvious that they all felt the pressure.
“The casting process was very stressful. Preacher has been living in Seth and Evan’s heads, and in so many Preacher fans’ heads for 20 years, I wanted to get it right,” said Catlin. “I think we did a pretty good job.”
Given the widespread enthusiasm of the convention hall, Catlin and company appear off to a promising start, clearly devoted to the source material.
“We want to do Garth Ennis’ Preacher, and we have every intention of doing it. It’s not AMC’s Preacher. It’s Preacher. That’s always been our mandate from the beginning. We were never interested in doing an approximation of that,” said Catlin. “We’ve
had very little pushback from AMC. Everyone wants to do Garth’s Preacher. It’s our bible, our road map, and why not? That crazy f***ed up, upside down world, why do anything less than that?”
Catlin spoke to balancing the need to satisfy fans and attract new audiences.
“The show has to work for Preacher fans, or for all of the people who have never heard of the comic. That’s the challenge. The fun is putting in the Easter eggs for fans,” he said.
“I was desperate, desperate to play this character. It had everything you could ever want to play,” said Cooper. “This is just a taste for what is to come for the character. There’s so much more to discover.”
Catlin couldn’t promise the inclusion of John Wayne, and on the subject of the Saint of Killers, he was the kind of mum by which Comic-Con is fueled.
“We’ll see. All of those people are going to come in their time. I promise.”
Hardcore fans might just have what they always wanted, and they aren’t the only ones.
“I have what I’ve always wanted,” said Cooper. “I can make people do exactly what I say.”
He didn’t tell us to watch Preacher, but he didn’t need to.
Preacher premieres Sunday May 22 at 10/9c on AMC.
[All images courtesy of AMC]
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