After nearly 16 years in which rumors of feature-film or TV adaptations made Arsefaces of us all, AMC has closed a deal to develop a drama series based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s quintessentially ’90s comic Preacher. The announcement comes several months after Badass Digest first floated the report that the Walking Dead network was interested in bringing another beloved, apocalyptic graphic novel to the small screen, which was soon followed by the news that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg would be stepping up where others like Kevin Smith, DJ Caruso, and Sam Mendes had tried and failed before them. Today it’s all official, with AMC and Sony setting Rogen and Goldberg as writers and executive producers, Breaking Bad’s Sam Catlin as showrunner, and expectations as high as they’ve ever been for anyone trying to bring this comic to life.
For Ennis and Dillon’s part, Ennis said in a statement that AMC seems like a “natural home” for the sprawling story of the foulmouthed Rev. Jesse Custer and his vampire-aided quest to confront God, and praised Rogen and Goldberg as two guys who “understand Preacher fully—meaning they get it for what it is, not some vague approximation.” (And just in case, Ennis and Dillon say they have been involved in the conversations about the show’s development.) Meanwhile, Rogen and Goldberg issued their own statement, saying they’d been trying for seven years to get someone to let them make Preacher, exclaiming, “It is our favorite comic of all time, and we’re going to do everything we can to do it right. Humperdoo!” For those unfamiliar with Preacher, “Humperdoo” is the favorite exclamation of the inbred, shit-smeared, floor-pissing descendant of Jesus Christ—a character who will soon be in your living room on a weekly basis.
