!['Preacher' Canceled at AMC](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/preacher_s02e02_still_5_embed.jpg?w=928&h=619&crop=1)
Preacher‘s upcoming fourth season will be its last.
Executive producer Seth Rogen announced the news Monday via his verified Twitter page in which he posted a video revealing that season four of the series would return Aug. 4 for its “final season.”
The 10-episode comic book drama was renewed in November following an extended negotiating process. The show, produced by Rogen, Evan Goldberg and showrunner Sam Caitlin, moved its production hub from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and New Orleans to Australia.
The decision to end Preacher with season four comes days after Rogen and Goldberg moved their Sony TV-based Point Grey Pictures to Lionsgate with a massive film and TV overall deal.
Preacher had a wild ride to the small screen. AMC landed the rights to the series in February 2014 in a competitive situation with multiple outlets bidding for the beloved property. In October 2008, executive producers Neal Moritz, Jason Netter, Ken Levin and Ori Marmur were attached to produce a feature film take on Preacher — with Ennis writing — after HBO passed on its planned series adaptation. The HBO incarnation, first announced in November 2006, was written by feature scribe Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider) with initial plans for a by-the-book take on all 75 issues (including one-shots). After crafting the bible for a potential series, HBO — under new executives — passed on the project. The network, Johnson said, thought Preacher was “too dark and too violent and too controversial.”
News of Preacher‘s end game arrives the same day that the basic cable network announced a third series in the Walking Dead universe as AMC continues to double down on its ratings behemoth. What’s more, all of the Walking Dead series are owned and produced in-house, while AMC had to pay a licensing fee for Preacher, which — despite its built-in fan base — was never much of a ratings or awards breakout.
AMC’s scripted slate now includes Better Call Saul (from Sony TV), all three Walking Dead series, Lodge 49, McMafia, The Terror, NOS4A2 and the upcoming Dispatches From Elsewhere. Into the Badlands and The Son will both also end this year on AMC.
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