Few people could make blowing someone up from the inside out a compliment, and Seth Rogen is one of those people. The most buzzed-about joke since Preacher‘s premiere at SXSW has been around the fact that in the show’s universe, Tom Cruise is dead. The entity that eventually settles on the titular hero jumps from religious figure to religious figure, until it lands in Scientologist Tom Cruise, exploding him like the rest of the rejects. Cruise’s people reportedly reached out to the crew of Preacher, but nothing much came of their inquiry. Now, showrunner Sam Catlin and executive producers Seth Rogen and Adam Goldberg are explaining the gory details behind Cruise’s death.
“We wanted to have this entity try out a lot of different hosts,” Catlin told The Hollywood Reporter. “We went with a devout preacher in Africa, then we went to a Satanist and then we were like… well, what else do we do?”
“We kept waiting for someone to tell us we can’t do that,” he said. “I think they were getting ready to, but once they realized how funny it was, I think they started to wait for somebody else to tell us no, and by then, it was too late.”
Evan Goldberg is trying to make it absolutely clear that there’s nothing behind Cruise being blown up, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “There’s no negative connotation to it. We’re not making a statement.”
In fact, Seth Rogen loves Tom Cruise.
“I watch every movie of his that comes out. Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best f—ing movies ever. We only make fun of people we are big fans of. It would actually just feel too mean to make fun of people we don’t like. I need to be able to go up to them and say, ‘It’s because I like you!’ I’m the biggest Kanye West fan on the planet and I’ve probably made fun of him more than anybody on a very large scale, and he gets it and thinks it’s funny.”
Before fans of the comics get up in arms about the changes already coming to their beloved series, it should be known that creator Garth Ennis loves the Cruise joke, which wasn’t in the books.
“I thought it was smart. It’s the third of three attempts by the entity to find a home. The African preacher, the Russian magister … Tom Cruise. Look, if the Cruiser can’t handle it, it’s going to need something special.”
And Jesse Custer is special indeed.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
