‘Preacher’ Casts Jackie Earle Haley As Meaty Villain Odin Quincannon
By Jacob Hall/Feb. 9, 2016 10:00 am EST
Now, a piece of casting news has revealed just how far from the source material writer/producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin and planning to stray. Academy Award nominee Jackie Earle Haley has joined the cast as a villainous character whose presence in the show’s first season defies the comic’s original storyline in a huge way.
IGN reports that Haley has been cast as Odin Quincannon, whose television incarnation is described as “a small, decrepit man with the unscrupulous iron will necessary to be the most powerful man in Annville County, Texas. The chief employer in town, Odin runs Quincannon Meat & Power, a 125-year-old family run cattle slaughterhouse business.” That basic description mostly aligns with his comic book counterpart, but there are plenty of grotesque mysteries still waiting to be discovered about this guy. In a series full of villains that bring up a little bile every time they appear, Quincannon is among the most vomit-worthy baddies of them all.
He’s a bit younger than the Quincannon of the comics, but Haley is inspired casting for this part, mainly because he’s so damn watchable and so comfortable wallowing in the grotesque. Although he’s an Oscar nominee for his work in Little Children and a frequent supporting player in prestige films like All the King’s Men, Lincoln, and Parkland, Haley is best known amongst the comic book set for his performance as Rorschach in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen and for playing Guerrero on the well-liked but short-lived Human Target. Preacher can only be helped by his presence.
We’ve already seen one trailer for Preacher (that dodges the show’s supernatural elements for some reason) and the pilot screened to mixed responses at the Television Critics Association. We’ll be able to make up our own minds when the series premieres later this year.
