On November 1st, AMC finally released a trailer for the long-waiting-to-be-adapted Preacher TV series. For those who are unaware, Preacher is a comic book from the 1990’s which sees Jesse Custer, a preacher from Texas possessed by the offspring of an angel and a demon during a sermon at a small town church.  The incident sees the church and everyone in it annihilated with the exception of Custer himself. He then finds himself empowered with the word of God, essentially meaning he has the ability to command people to do his bidding as and when he sees fit. Among all this insanity, he learns that God has literally abandoned his post in heaven, so with his friend Cassidy (an Irish vampire) and his on-again off-again girlfriend Tulip in tow, he goes on a search to literally find God.

Now assuming you’ve followed all that, with such a weird ambitious storyline, not to mention the darkly controversial nature of the source material, it’s no wonder it took many a failed attempt at adapting Preacher to a movie or TV series before we’ve been brought to this point. Website Bleeding Cool gave some details on the pilot script, and the structure of the series looks like it’s set to be quite different from the comic, but hopefully purists of the comic can remain open minded. And hopefully the makers of the show haven’t made a mess of it. Although, with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Breaking Bad’s Sam Caitlin at the helm, it’s in very good hands.

So with the first full trailer available for all to see, here’s 20 things we’ve learned, seen and questioned about Preacher.

01. The Boy That Wants Jesse to Hurt His Father

The trailer opens with a little boy asking Jesse to hurt his father. Who is this boy? There’s no boy of note that I can personally recall from the comic that asks Jesse for any such favours. Of course, deviating from the original story in this way does mean that we’ll have more unknown elements to look forward to. Unless of course it’s a young Eugene Root, AKA Arseface. This would mean another huge departure from the comic though, but not one totally out of the question, given the first set photo tweeted by Seth Rogen of Arseface and Jesse.

The Boy

Preacher and Arseface

02. The Boy’s Father

Who is the boy’s father? Has he been previously seen in the comics? Is he one of the men that Jesse fights in the bar during the trailer?

03. Jesse’s Past

The boy also mentions implies that his request for Jesse to attack his father isn’t an unreasonable one, considering Jesse’s previous activities before becoming a man of God. There are flashbacks to Jesse’s chequered past in the book, so this may be an indication that we’ll see some portion of that in the first series.

04. Jesse’s Scars

We see who is presumably Jesse from behind, with no clothes on his upper body There’s also some fairly severe scarring. My money’s on Jody, one of the most relentlessly vicious characters from the comic being responsible for said scarring. Introducing a character like that one in the opening series would be huge, although the reveal of the scars could merely be set up for later in the series run, provided it keeps going.

Jesse’s From Behind

05. Ratwater bottle

This one got me excited. There’s a shot of an empty bottle of an alcoholic beverage, called Ratwater. On the bottle is the silhouette of a man. There’s no mistaking who it is supposed to be: It’s The Saint of Killers. As vicious as Jody is, The Saint is an unstoppable killing machine. In the books, he sold his soul to the devil in order to wreak vengeance on a group of outlaws in the town of Ratwater, Texas. So the subtle inclusion of that bottle was a beautiful touch.

The Saint of Killers

06. Jesse Has Ragged Trousers

At one point, we see a shot of Jesse walking up the stairs of what appears to be inside someone’s house. Why are his trousers ragged? And whose house is it? Could it be Arseface? The set photo previously shared by Rogen appears to be inside Arseface’s bedroom, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Or could it be the L’Angelle residence from the books, indicating a massive showdown about to take place? It’s intriguing to say the least. Incidentally, that photo from Arseface’s bedroom also has a Jack White poster on the wall, hinting that the show will be set in the present day, rather than the 1990’s.

Jesse’s Ragged Trousers

07. Cassidy Is Not Wearing Shades

This is an odd choice. Cassidy’s shades in the comic are pretty iconic, so deciding to leave them out of the TV show does seem pretty strange. Still, Cassidy’s facial expressions are among the most memorable parts of the trailer.

08. On the Other Hand… Is That Cassidy With Shades?

It’s only for a split second, but there’s a shot of a character wearing shades very similar to those you tend to see Cassidy wearing in the comic. Could it be that it’s later on in the series that Cassidy begins to wear the sunglasses?

Cassidy with shades. Possibly…

09. Cassidy and the Bible

Whose bible is Cassidy reading? And why does it have all that frantic doodling on the pages? My money’s on either Herr Starr or once again Marie L’Angelle.

Cassidy Reading the Bibile

A Disturbing Bible at That…

10. Cassidy on a Plane

Seeing Cassidy on a plane seemingly dressed as a waiter raises one major question: What circumstances have lead him there? If you’ve read the comic, you’ll know that he does end up on a plane sans Jesse at one stage, but certainly not dressed as a waiter, brandishing a broken bottle. Which leads to the next question.

Cassidy On a Plane

11. Why does Cassidy Bottle the Pilot On the Plane?

With a champagne bottle it seems. Also, there’s another body on the floor in the background, with no indication as to who it is.

Ready, Aim…

Fire!

12. The Bar Fight

Who is Jesse fighting in the bar? Is it the aforementioned father of the boy? Or could it be the fight that breaks out in an early issue of the comic, where Jesse calls out the townsfolk for their horrendous sins, prompting a massive brawl?

Bar Fight

13. The Arm Breaking

Whose arm does Jesse break? And what the did this man do exactly? If the show makers have captured Jesse correctly though, you can make a safe bet that that person very much deserves to get his limbs broken.

The Arm Break

14. Tulip

We only see Tulip briefly in the trailer. Once waiting in a car and once with an unknown man on top of her trying to stab her. Considering her disastrous and brief stint as a hitwoman in the books, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s her boss, calling her out for not doing her job.

Tulip

15. Cassidy On Fire

If you know nothing about the comic, the only indication from the trailer that Cassidy is in fact a vampire comes very briefly as he looks at his hand burning in the sun, while the rest of his body remains in the shade.

Cassidy On Fire

16. Church Shoot Out

Seemingly taking place in a church. initially during this portion of the trailer, I assumed it was the aforementioned destruction of the congregation during the initial possession of Jesse during his sermon. On closer inspection though, it looks like it may be a shoot out taking place. It also appears that the people in this building are all black, possibly alluding to some sort of hate crime.

The Shoot Out

17. Helicopter On Fire

Once again, this raises questions along the lines of why is there a helicopter in the first place? And what prompted it to wind up crashed and on fire?

Helicopter On Fire

18. Dead Bald Man

There’s no obvious indication from the comic as to the identity of this man, and certainly not as to why he appears to be dead. Also, if you look closely, there seems to be the intriguing feature of small toy army men embedded into his skull and face.

Dead Bald Man

19. Fall from a Plane

There is a sequence involving a character falling from a plane in the comics (I won’t say which one) but I would have assumed that would be quite a bit down the line, in terms of the overall story. But from the evidence so far, nothing in the TV show is following the origin story all that closely.

Fall From a Plane

20. Cassidy and Jesse in Jail

Could this be where Jesse and Cassidy initially meet and strike up their friendship? It’s a very different scenario from where they cross paths in the comic, but along with all the other changes hinted at so far, so long as it’s well written, stays true to the spirit of the comic, and hopefully has the same overall goal of Jesse Custer confronting God for abandoning his post, I’ll be satisfied.

Jesse and Cassidy in Jail

So with an 86 second trailer, we now have some sort of indication of the direction in which we’re being taken with the AMC’s Preacher adaptation. Some people are already attacking it, sadly. All you have to do is check out the comments on YouTube to see the sheer volume of fans that already hate the show without seeing a single episode, or even dismiss it out of hand because it has Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg at the helm, but you really can’t please everyone. With an open mind, and a sense of hope, I personally can’t wait to see Preacher finally brought to life. Roll on May 2016.