What Does ‘Preacher’ Filming In Victoria Mean For Season Four?

Fans of Preacher’s irreverent humour, iconic storyline, and ultra-stylised violence were spinning by the tenth episode finale of season three this past August. The show’s short blast was applauded for being perfectly paced and featuring a fierce ensemble of the source material’s favourites. Addressing the show’s past errors directly and rapidly building momentum each week, Sam Catlin, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen have made Preacher‘s third season their finest so far.

Now that AMC has finally announced that a fourth season will be returning to our screens in 2019, we could be happy enough with that news alone, but instead, we’ve now learnt that Victoria, as in the Australian state, will, in fact, be the feature setting for the upcoming ten-episode arc, with Film Victoria CEO Caroline Pitcher stating: “We look forward to showcasing the work of our industry internationally, and to seeing Melbourne shine on screens around the world through this series.” Melbourne fans will hopefully love seeing their home state represented on the screen!

So, with all of this new information dropping on us, and the dangling plot points of season three still looming, it’s probably time to try and work out what AMC has in store for us next year. Fair warning, though the scripts for these episodes are as of yet unconfirmed, this all may still get a little… spoilery. If you’ve not watched season three, or don’t want to see too far ahead on what may come, there’s no shame in backing out now.

When we closed the previous chapter of Jesse Custer’s rampaging ways, it was with an utter bloodbath for almost everybody, involved; Satan, Hoover, Eccarius, the Children of Blood, Jody, T.C, the Angelville Plantation, and grandma herself, Madame L’Angelle, all fading to black by the end in one way or another. We also had Herr Starr reaching the limit of his patience, teasers of rifle torturers, and a chained angel in waiting.

The AMC series has been fairly liberal in the past with stitching pieces of the comic book’s tapestry together to suit their own medium, and to date, they’ve certainly included the majority of the comic’s short running story. Given the TV show’s capturing of Cassidy being highlighted and Victoria being given a spotlight for the next showdown, it seems pretty certain that we’re walking straight into DC/Vertigo issues of Proud Americans.

It’s already been confirmed by the show producers that Melbourne itself will play a prominent role in upcoming episodes, and regional Victoria is also slated for part of the $50 million-dollar production. Looking at the panning shots we’ve already seen of a towering castle, a simple tweak from the comic’s original French locale to the arid Victorian Murray region in the states North-West would line up perfectly to bring both The Grail and Masada into our backyard.

Having Jesse Custer traversing through the red dirt on his way to save his imprisoned friend will certainly flesh out the initial few episodes, that’s far from the end.

We also know Proud Americans starts off its short nine issues with a chance encounter from the past in the form of Vietnam veteran Billy Baker. Baker was stranded during the war with John Custer, the father of Jesse, and goes on to relive the ordeal with the young preacher. Flashbacks of John’s past have featured previously, and between the striking Dandenong Ranges offering a Vietnam-like setting, and the studio powerhouse of Melbourne’s Docklands Studios, it won’t be surprising to see the expansion of John’s time during the war.

Docklands may also need to hire a few extra cleaners soon, as the last we saw of the dual pistols of The Saint of Killers, he had Eugene in tow, full speed towards a bloody battle at Masada. The comics played these pages out with gallons of red ink involved and it’s unlikely that AMC will want to see it transformed any differently. It will be brutal, bloody, and brilliant.

Which brings us to what could be the brightest spark of this story, The Seraphim.

The angel hanging high in Masada is thought to be the heavenly father of The Genesis that bonded with Jesse. If we get anything close to the comic lineage, we should finally get our first true glimpse into what Genesis really is, and possibly see the path down which the season may progress.

The previously mentioned Murray has a wildly diverse backdrop, and with seven months in this beautiful country slated, why not continue filming straight into the issues that fans are desperate to see, War In The Sun. For the unfamiliar, these seven issues follow Custer through the desert as he searches for the Monument Valley Indigenous people, in an attempt to learn even more about Genesis. He also inadvertently triggers a clash the likes of which we’ve not yet seen in Preacher, and graces us with one of the book’s most iconic quotes, “Not enough gun.”

That’s right, why not send off the show’s fourth series with an actual nuclear blast! Showering fire throughout as the Saint of Killers looms tall, Jesse’s life hanging in the balance, and Starr discovering a new method of rapid weight loss (bonus points if they work Alexander Pearce into that one). It would be the natural cliffhanger to keep us gripped for that fifth season, and when compressed into the ten episodes scheduled, it would deliver the same pound for pound impact as its predecessor.

All this has done, however, is scratch the surface for what this show could in fact hold, we’re still waiting to see if Hitler will receive his plum cake of power, or just how stiff Frankie Toscani is going to seem, and most importantly if cloning can possibly save Party Hoover.

It’s going to be a long wait until August 2019, and the only way you can get it any sooner is by keeping an eye on those casting calls come January, so you can be amongst the action yourself.

You can stream all three seasons of Preacher via Stan now.