This article mentions suicide.

Summary

  • AMC's Preacher adapted Garth Ennis' comic, though season 1 served as a prequel.
  • The show was quite controversial, particularly in the first season. (91 characters)
  • Preacher featured a large cast, including Dominic Cooper, Joe Gilgun, and Ruth Negga in prominent roles.

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic book of the same name, Preacher premiered on June 29, 2016, following a series of failed projects that tried to bring Jesse Custer to the screen. Between a James Marsden-led movie and a big-budget HBO show that sought to cover one comic book issue per episode, Preacher was becoming known as one of the “unadaptable” comics until the AMC show premiered.

AMC’s Preacher was quite controversial, particularly in season 1. Rather than adapting the source material directly, the show started as a prequel to Ennis’ comics. It used many of the characters and concepts from the comics, including but not limited to Jesse Custer, the Genesis entity, Cassidy, and Tulip. Most of the ing characters consist of Annville citizens, all of whom have their secrets and demons. With 43 episodes aired over four seasons, Preacher featured a relatively large cast between Jesse’s inner circle and all the other faces he ran into during his journey.

Preacher Cast

Character

Dominic Cooper

Jesse Custer

Joe Gilgun

Cassidy

Ruth Negga

Tulip O'Hare

Graham McTavish

The Saint of Killers

Ian Colletti

Eugene Root/Arseface

Tom Brooke

Fiore

Anatol Yusef

DeBlanc

Noah Taylor

Adolf Hitler

Lucy Griffiths

Emily Woodrow

Pip Torrens

Herr Starr

Julie Ann Emery

Lara Featherstone

Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer

Date of Birth: June 2, 1978

  • Active Since: 2000

Actor: Dominic Cooper was born in Greenwich, London, England, and broke big as Sky in 2008’s Mamma Mia!, a role he would reprise ten years later. Custer is also known for playing young Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger and all seasons of Agent Carter.

Notable Movies & TV Shows

Character

Mamma Mia!

Sky

Captain America: The First Avenger

Howard Stark

Agent Carter

Howard Stark

My Lady Jane

Halvlock

Character: A reformed criminal turned preacher, Jesse Custer is the main character in both the comic book and the TV show. After around a year of being not-so-very-good of a preacher despite having been raised by one, Jesse merged with Genesis, the offspring of an angel and a demon. As a result, he was given the Word of God, also known as Divine commandment, meaning he could control peoples’ minds by telling them what to do.

Joe Gilgun as Cassidy

Date of Birth: March 4, 1984

  • Active Since: 1994

Actor: Joe Gilgun was born in Chorley, Lancashire, England, and started acting as a child, having been on Coronation Street for three years. Following a period away from the screen, Gilgun properly returned to acting in 2006 with the soap opera Emmerdale. He made his film debut in 2007 with This Is England. In addition to playing fan-favorite Cassidy, Gilgun was also an executive producer in part of Preacher season 3 and all of season 4.

Notable Movies & TV Shows

Character

This Is England

Richard "Woody" Woodford

Harry Brown

Kenneth "Kenny" Soames

The Last Witch Hunter

Ellic

Brassic

Vincent "Vinnie" O'Neill

Character: One of Jesse’s closest companions, Cassidy is a 119-year-old Irish vampire who used to be a freedom fighter before deserting. Cassidy s Custer and Tulip on their journey to find God and is widely regarded as one of the best characters in the show. He is virtually immortal, unpredictable, and chaotic.

Ruth Negga as Tulip O'Hare

Date of Birth: May 4, 1981

  • Active Since: 2004

Actor: Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and had in the 2004 Irish film Capital Letters her breakout role. A year later, she starred in Colour Me Kubrick. Since then, she has been in several movies and TV shows, with her role as Raina in Agents of Shield being one of her most popular before Preacher. Since starring in Preacher, Negga has been in movies such as Ad Astra and recently starred in Apple TV+'s Presumed Innocent.

Notable Movies & Shows

Character

Capital Letters

Taiwo

Ad Astra

Helen Lantos

Agents of Shield

Raina

Presumed Innocent

Barbara Sabich

Character: Tulip was once Jesse’s fiancé, with the duo traveling around the country doing “jobs,” an euphemism used by them to describe their criminal activities. After being betrayed by an associate during a bank robbery, Tulip suffered a miscarriage, and their relationship ended up failing. Preacher stars with Tulip reuniting with Jesse in Annville, after which they slowly start to become close again despite how different their lives had turned out.

Related
9 Things Preacher's TV Show Cut From The Comic Books

Preacher's TV adaptation changed a lot of details from the original Garth Ennis comics, but many of these alterations actually improved the story.

Graham McTavish as the Saint of Killers:

Date of Birth: January 4, 1961

  • Active Since: 1986

Actor: Graham McTavish was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and has been in several movies, TV shows, and video games, with plenty of notable roles in the fantasy genre. In addition to the Saint of Killers, his most famous roles include Dwalin in The Hobbit movies, Harrold Westerling in House of the Dragon, Sigismund Dijkstra in The Witcher, and Dracula in Castlevania.

Notable Movies & TV Shows

Character

The Hobbit trilogy

Dwalin

House of the Dragon

Harrold Westerling

The Witcher

Dijkstra

Castlevania

Dracula

Character: William was a Civil War soldier who died and was sent to Hell. After an eternity of being punished, the Saint of Killers was offered the chance to leave Hell – but only if he could find and kill Jesse Custer.

Preacher ing Cast & Characters

TV show poster for Preacher depicting the titular Preacher behind a chapel.

Ian Colletti as Eugene Root/Arseface: After a failed suicide attempt, Eugene was left with a disfigured face and speech impediment. He was then banned from attending the church due to how he looked and assumed that God had something against him. Eugene only started to attend the church again after meeting Jesse, who reassured him God did not hold a grudge against him.

Tom Brooke as Fiore: An angel whose mission is to find and retrieve Genesis, who is now bonded with Jesse.

Anatol Yusef as DeBlanc: Also an angel, DeBlack ed Fiored in his secret mission to retrieve Genesis and bring it back to Heaven.

Noah Taylor as Adolf Hitler: An example of how dark and twisted the original comic book can be, Preacher has its version of Adolf Hitler. He is in Hell at the beginning of the show but manages to escape, taking on the name of David Hilter and planning to eventually return to power.

Lucy Griffiths as Emily Woodrow: Jesse presided over the All Saints' Congregational, of which Emily was the organist. Despite their different personalities and views, Emily befriended Jesse and was willing to help him.

Pip Torrens as Herr Starr: He is the Allfather of the Grail, a secret organization that has been around for two millennia and seeks to protect the bloodline of Christ.

Julie Ann Emery as Lara Featherstone: A servant of the Grail in Preacher, Lara Featherstone reports to Herr Star and is the first to inform him about Jesse Custer’s powers. She used a fake name to become close to Jesse, Tulidy, and Cassidy.

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Your Rating

Preacher
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Mystery
Drama
Western
Supernatural
Release Date
2016 - 2019-00-00
Network
AMC
Showrunner
Sam Catlin
  • Headshot Of Colin Cunningham
    Colin Cunningham
    TC
  • Headshot O fDominic Cooper
    Dominic Cooper
    Jesse Custer

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Preacher follows Jesse Custer, a Texas preacher, on his quest to confront the divine for abandoning humanity. Aided by Cassidy, a vampire, and Tulip, a gun-toting Texan, he wields the power of Genesis, a potent force born from an angel and a demon, to challenge celestial authority.

Franchise(s)
Preacher
Seasons
4