With the unconventional team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg behind the scenes, Preacher became a surprise cult favourite during its first run last year. Now, the show is getting ready to return with a bigger, bolder and funnier second go around, and if there’s one thing we can surely expect it’s the unexpected.
Perhaps a given with the trio of British talent at the forefront that includes not one but two Misfits alums, Preacher filled the Misfits-shaped hole in a lot of Brits’ hearts, with madcap humour, gross-out moments and a sense of absurd fun that’s hard to capture without turning people off.
On the next phase, Dominic Cooper recently told USA Today: “I don’t ever know really how to describe what we’re creating here. I’m endlessly shocked and surprised by the characters who are walking out of trailers or scenes unfolding before my very eyes.”
Here’s everything we know about season two of Preacher:
New conflicts for Jesse
Back last year, executive producer and co-creator Sam Catlin told Deadline how the first season would act as a prequel to the Vertigo comics, setting up Jesse (Cooper) as a complicated, conflicted protagonist.
“In the first season we really wanted to establish Jesse’s relationship to God and lack thereof. He is disillusioned and losing his congregation from the beginning. We needed to put Jesse’s journey into context, and his mission for next season.”
So how will the character change now that he’s on the road with his new pals, continuing to navigate his position of power without abusing it?
“It’s to do with ego and arrogance: Are you keeping hold of this thing – even though it’s not helping – for your benefit, or is it for others?” Cooper said. “It raises a lot of other questions, and by the end (of the season) he’s forced to confront a very difficult choice. It really determines what kind of a person this man is.”
Trouble in paradise for Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy
Despite ending the first season as a more or less solid unit, trouble may lie ahead for the main gang as they all deal with their individual issues.
“You have this one guy in the middle who’s very determined and has one very specific and pointed goal that the other two might not be as equally seduced by but are actually probably doing it just to avoid their own existence,” said Cooper. “Each of their neuroses and problems that we’ve had to hint about from the first season all come to the forefront, and it makes for an explosive combination.”
New locales
Despite expanding the world, much of the show’s success from the comics on which the series is based, and fans of the source material can expect season two to dig further into those stories.
New episodes will see the gang visit New Orleans, which is a big setting of the Vertigo comics and a key touchstone the series needed to reach on-screen.
The “ultimate cowboy”
Following a clearing of the table in the first season finale, Preacher needs to set up some new characters for this new run. According to reports, these will include the Saint of Killers (played by Graham McTavish) and the mysterious ‘figure in white’, both of whom fans will be familiar with.
“He’s the ultimate cowboy,” Cooper says of the Saint of Killers. “Understanding his background, the hell he’s trapped in and the blame he lays on himself makes for a very frightening evil villain.”
Preacher returns to Amazon Prime on 26 June. Watch the season two trailer below.