The SXSW Film Festival begins this weekend and one of the biggest surprises is that AMC will debut the pilot episode of “Preacher,” which hails from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (This Is the End, Superbad, Neighbors), with showrunner Sam Catlin (“Breaking Bad”).

Ahead of the World Premiere, AMC tells Bloody Disgusting we can expect the series to debut in May 2016, while also providing our first ever looks at Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) and Tulip (Ruth Negga), to go along with the initial shot of Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) lightning up a cigarette.

Based on the twisted and popular ’90s comic book franchise of the same name, “Preacher,” created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, is the story of Jesse Custer (Cooper) a conflicted Preacher in a small Texas town who is inhabited by a mysterious entity that allows him to develop a highly unconventional power. Jesse, his ex-girlfriend, Tulip (Negga), and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (Gilgun) embark on a journey to, literally, find God.

The trio are thrust into a crazy world populated by a cast of characters from Heaven, Hell and everywhere in between.

A Nightmare On Elm Street‘s Jackie Earle Haley was recently cast as Haley Odin, a member of the local KKK branch and clashes multiple times with Jesse.

Other cast includes W. Earl Brown as ‘Sheriff Hugo Root’, the mean-hearted father of Eugene Root aka Arseface (Ian Colletti), a flinty-eyed, conspiracy-credulous redneck who is not a fool and has a vulnerability to him.

Jamie Anne Allman will play Betsy Schenck, a meek wife who appears to suffer beatings by the hand of her husband, Donny. When the Preacher checks up on her, though, she tells a different story. Derek Wilson is Donny Schenck, a Civil War re-enactor and abusive thug who gets into altercations with Jesse Custer but nevertheless shows up to church on Sundays.

Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer

Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy

Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare