‘Preacher’ Boss Sam Catlin Promises More Violence, Comedy, And Perversity In Season 2

Preacher took AMC by storm with its first season, drawing in fans of The Walking Dead and giving them a new universe to sink their teeth into with vampires instead of zombies. Now, as Preacher boss Sam Catlin looks forward to Season 2, he teases an amped-up second installment and shares his thoughts on the first season.

Preacher Showrunner Sam Catlin On Serving A Purpose With Season 1

Speaking with Gizmodo, Sam Catlin says he feels satisfied that he accomplished what he set out to do with the first season of Preacher. Instead of jumping into the middle of an ongoing story, Season 1 of Preacher sets up the story and introduces the key characters of Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), his vampire partner Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), and their sidekick Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga).

Catlin adds that he felt it was important to set up Jesse’s life in a way that gave Preacher viewers a taste of who he was before the events in the series and how those events would mold him into a different person. The Preacher showrunner also points out that this evolution was necessary in exploring Jesse’s relationship with God.

Now, as Jesse becomes more than a mere man and launches a very literal hunt for God, Sam says Preacher can really dive in head first with Season 2.

“Season one is sort of like nitrous or pot,” the Preacher boss says, adding that Season 2 “would be almost like if you were to start with heroin.”

Sam Catlin Teases A Wilder Season 2 For Preacher

Catlin tells Moviefone that Season 1 also served as a proving ground with the show’s creative team exploring what they could do and how extreme they could take Preacher without suffering consequences. Now that Preacher has established its mythology and characters, Catlin says they’re free to take Season 2 of Preacher even further.

“…there are certain things that we realized that only our show could get away with,” said the Preacher showrunner. “So we tried to do more of that, in terms of the violence, and the comedy, and the perversity, and stuff like that.”

For fans of the Preacher comic books, the AMC series is quite different and Sam reveals that it will remain its own unique animal. He shares that the cost of being 100 percent faithful to the comics, including filming locations in France and Ireland, would be prohibitive, but also points out that a literal adaptation would have the series running out of material fairly quickly.

Instead, the Preacher boss says they try to retain the same feel as the comic book delivers, but tell a slightly different story for American audiences.

“So what we want to do is we always want to make Preacher feel like Preacher, and we delve a little deeper into some of these, what look like little pit stops on the road in the comic book become whole episodes, or several episodes, or stuff like that.”

For season 2 of Preacher, Catlin reveals that The Saint of Killers will play a big part, getting involved with Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy on the road, which may lead to more on the Grail. Sam also revealed that Preacher will delve deeper into the personal histories of the main characters, exploring Jesse’s life after his father was killed and Tulip’s past, before and after she teamed up with Jesse.

Preacher fans will also learn more about Cassidy’s past, exposing the mistakes and shameful acts for which he’s now seeking redemption. Catlin says Cassidy has experienced personal failure more so than Jesse and Tulip and Preacher will show how that has shaped his own journey.

Season 2 of Preacher premieres on Sunday, June 25, on AMC.

[Featured Image by AMC]