UPDATE: We jumped to conclusions. The “supernatural” force is not aliens and it is, in fact, Genesis. Whew, we all feel better now!

Well, 1200 lucky individuals had the opportunity to watch the pilot episode and quite a bit has been leaked online. At this point, almost everyone knows that Tom Cruise gets blown up. That was supposed to be a secret but AMC had to know that was going to flood the Internet. One of the biggest things we will point out is that God does not take over Jesse’s brain/memory – aliens do [misreported].

To try and divert many religious outlets Preacher is a show in which aliens take over the bodies of preachers throughout the world. This is why Tom Cruise is blown up. Per Entertainment Weekly:

In the premiere, a mysterious force from outer space is possessing preachers around the world – then graphically exploding them from the inside out. Midway through the episode, there’s a news report that shows Cruise speaking in front of a Church of Scientology audience, and then likewise blowing up.

This is going to be interesting as it takes out a lot of the story lines and one liners in which Jesse, Cassidy, Tulip, Saint of Killers and others are upset at God, not aliens. Now that we know Genesis is, in fact, the “supernatural” power we will definitely see Saint of Killers and some of the other fantastic characters in the comic book.

The pilot will not include much of the content in Preacher #1. This episode will show the “origins” of Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy which do not come until much later in the comic books. It will also be the case that the origins in the pilot will not be exactly the way they played out in the comic books. That said, those that saw the pilot loved how it played out.

Note that the budget is very small for the first season of Preacher. This is one of the reasons the most of the first season will be Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy in Annville, Texas and not traveling around to New York, France, Louisiana and other places like they did in the comic books. That said, if the TV show gets popular, the budget will likely increase and we will get to see our favorite threesome traveling around the globe. Fingers crossed.

We also know that your favorite characters are coming. Although the pilot pre-dates the comic books, Seth Rogan confirmed that later shows will have the comic book characters you know and love. Expect to see Saint of Killers, Herr Starr, Allfather D’Aronique and others in episodes 2-10 of the first season.

You can watch the Q&A after the pilot at SXSW here.