Ruth Negga

What, you didn’t think we’d get through The Walking Dead Season 7 finale without a taste of Preacher, did you? Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy hit the road in our first official Season 2 teaser, chock-full of all the blood and supernatural shenanigans we’ve been missing.

Just yesterday we learned some of the famous faces to stand with AMC’s Preacher in Season 2, but what of the core trio? Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy are back in the first new photos, also declaring a June premiere ahead of this weekend’s SXSW presentation.

You know the old saying about how it’s an honor just being nominated? It is. An Academy Award nomination is a win no matter the final outcome on Oscar night. For one thing, it guarantees a major boost in profile and an upgrade in the caliber of roles an actor gets offered. There’s no way, for example, that any Oscar nominee will accept the sorts of roles you’re about to see below.

AMC’s Preacher may not have made many Best of 2016 lists, but the second season might turn things around for Jesse, Tulip and Custer, as the unholy trio hits the road of their namesake comics. Creator-director Seth Rogen is ready as well, sharing the first production tease as Season 2 prepares to go before cameras.

Biopics about historical figures have a tendency to feel too pedagogic or overly political. No one wants to go to the movies for a history lesson – that’s what substitute teachers in high school are for. The strength of Loving, a new biopic about Richard and Mildred Loving, is that filmmaker Jeff Nichols puts the political talk in the background, focusing instead on the in intimate relationship at the center of a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court case.

Richard and Mildred Loving couldn’t have had a more perfect last name. The real-life interracial couple, whose 1958 marriage violated Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws and led to a landmark laws civil rights case, weren’t just incredible for how much they changed history, but for how deeply they loved one another despite all opposite. In the aptly titled historical drama ‘Loving,’ Jeff Nichols makes the couple’s warm devotion to one another the focal point of his quiet, intimate film.

And lo, the first season of AMC’s Preacher has come to an end with Sunday’s “Call and Response” finale, moving beyond the small Texas town of Annville to the comics’ road trip to find God. Said exit came with an explosive ending for many of the characters Season 1 had introduced us to, now confirmed by showrunner Sam Catlin, while Season 2's biggest bad may in fact be someone we’ve already glimpsed.

A common refrain among Preacher fans refers to the AMC drama’s Annville setting holding back the road-trip angle of the comics, but with only two episodes remaining this season, Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy are about to hit the road. Get an early taste of the final two hours, as well a major villain for Season 2 right now!

If you don’t know Ruth Negga’s name yet, get ready to hear it often come awards season

If the unilateral praise for AMC’s Preacher weren’t enough to guarantee a second season, certainly its wealth of talent and AMC’s bare-bones slate would guarantee it a spot, right? Either way, consider Preacher Jesse Custer officially booked to spread the word of God for Season 2, and this time with a longer mass.