preacher

The Television Critics Association’s winter press tour was able to get ‘Preacher‘ Executive Producers Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg to talk about what we can expect from their upcoming series. With ‘Breaking Bad’ and Mad Men’ long over, the network has high expectations from their next hit and ‘Preacher’ is clearly one of the potential candidates. A dark and gritty comic adaptation seems like the perfect fit with the ongoing success of ‘The Walking Dead‘.

Speaking of ‘The Walking Dead’, the series takes great liberties in making changes from the comic so one has to wonder how ‘Preacher’ might deal with that trend. According to Goldberg:

“It didn’t seem at first we should [deviate from the comic] that way and then we talked to Garth and he encouraged us to make small changes,” Goldberg said, noting their priority is to “make it a good show first and foremost. … We want fans who love the comic to get everything they want — but we make twists and turns.”

Rogen chimed in that:

“[We want viewers to] still be surprised,” Rogen said of deviations from the source material. “[The closed-ended comic] wouldn’t stretch out to what we hope is a successful series. We’re going to make a show we like and we hope that translates to people who loved the comic as well. Our goal is to make a great, entertaining, fun TV show that even if you’ve never heard of the comic book you’ll love.”

So it sounds like just in ‘The Walking Dead’ most of the large plot points will be hit, but the details getting us there are up for grabs to be changed depending how it works for TV. So while it will be deviating and possibly skipping parts of the story, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some eye winking towards the true fans. Catlin interjected that:

“People who know the comics, there are all sorts of Easter eggs throughout it,” Catlin said. “We’re very conscious of what the Preacher audience is expecting and the mythology they know about. … [We’re going to have] that subterranean dialogue with fans of the comic that doesn’t confuse people coming to the show for the first time.”

Rogen added:

Everyone involved thought we should not do that directly, including Garth. We love the comic; there’s tons of stuff in the comic we hope to include but also hope to subvert lovers of the comic at times and hopefully make them love everything we deliver in the end. … To have both those things would be an ideal scenario.

So if you’re a fan of ‘The Walking Dead’ adaptation, chances are there will be something for you here too.

Are you looking forward to ‘Preacher’? Do you think that as a comic it can survive what needs to be changed to make it to the small screen? Share your thoughts below!

Synopsis:

AMC is bringing fans “The Walking Dead Mega SWunday” event on November 1st at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. During the all-new extended 90-minute episode of “The Walking Dead,” AMC will air the world premiere of the trailer for AMC’s upcoming, highly anticipated series “Preacher,” as well as the television premiere of the “Into the Badlands” trailer.

In this all-new episode of “The Walking Dead,” “Here’s Not Here,” written by Scott M. Gimple and directed by Stephen Williams, the survivors must ask themselves who can be trusted, and better yet, can they change? Critics continue to praise the series, including Verne Gay of Newsday, who calls it “exceptional.”

Based on the twisted and popular ‘90s comic book franchise of the same name, “Preacher,” created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, is the story of Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) a conflicted Preacher in a small Texas town who is inhabited by a mysterious entity that allows him to develop a highly unconventional power. Jesse, his ex-girlfriend, Tulip (Ruth Negga), and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) embark on a journey to, literally, find God. The Sony Pictures Television and AMC Studios co-production was developed for television by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg (“This Is the End,” “Superbad,” “Neighbors”) and showrunner Sam Catlin (“Breaking Bad”). The series is set to premiere mid-2016.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Collider