Dominic Cooper is the Preacher man Jesse Custer. What fresh friends and foes will he encounter in season 2?
Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Tel
“Preacher” is back for more preaching to the perverted. The audacious, outrageous comic book adaptation returns to AMC and Amazon this weekend, and the second season has some new faces on board.
Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga and Joseph Gilgun are the unholy trinity Jesse Custer, Tulip and Cassidy. In season 2 they’re blazing a trail to New Orleans, with the implacable undead Saint of Killers gunslinger, played by Graham McTavish, hot on their heels.
Along the way they encounter a heavenly host of new characters. Here’s what we know so far…
Herr Starr
This is the big one: Herr Starr is the comic’s principal antagonist (if you don’t count God, obvs). The ruthless enforcer of an ancient religious conspiracy called the Grail, Starr is a devious and deviant cold-blooded killer with a taste for kinky sex. And hats.
Grail enforcer Herr Starr makes friends in the comic.
We briefly glimpsed Starr in the first season, where it was hinted he worked for Grail Industries, a shadowy organisation searching for a mysterious map.
Starr is played by Pip Torrens, previously seen in Netflix‘s “The Crown“, the BBC’s “Poldark” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens“.
Lara Featherstone
Featherstone is Starr’s right hand in the Grail. In the comic she’s a gifted administrator drawn into a web of intrigue and violence by Starr’s machinations, while in the TV show she’s described as “smart, calculating and not afraid to use any means, including her sexuality, to complete her assigned mission.” Ooo-er.
Featherstone is played by Julie Ann Emery, best known for playing Betsy Kettleman in AMC’s “Breaking Bad” spin-off “Better Call Saul“.
Mystery characters…
The TV show has already substantially deviated from the storyline established in the comics. But if it follows any of the comic arc that takes place in the Big Easy, we could be set to meet a gang of pretentious young vampire wannabes, a voodoo priest and a very large snake.
On the other hand, the New Orleans-set issues come much later in the comic, so we’re likely to meet some original characters, or even characters from elsewhere in the comic series.
Here are some of the actors we know are involved in the new season.
Character actor Noah Taylor appears in an unspecified role. Taylor played a young Hitler opposite John Cusack in the chilling historical drama “Max“, as well as appearing more recently in “Peaky Blinders,” and “Game of Thrones” as the duplicitous Locke.
At some point, Vik Sahay from “Chuck” will play a character named Frank Patel.
Among the actors appearing in recurring roles are Malcolm Barrett from “War on Everyone” and “Dear White People.” Could he be playing the hapless Hoover, Featherstone’s assistant in the Grail? Or perhaps he’s Xavier, the voodoo expert to whom Jesse turns for help in New Orleans in the comic?
Also appearing in recurring roles are Ronald Guttman from “Homeland,” and Justin Prentice from Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why.”
“Preacher” season 2 returns on AMC on Sunday 25 June in the US, and Monday 26 June on Amazon Video in the UK.
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