Though Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett only wrote one Good Omens novel, the heavens smiled upon them for a second season for the Amazon Prime adaptation. The first season tells the story of the entire novel, focusing on an angel and demon who team up to stop Armageddon. So how is a second season humanly—or divinely—possible? Despite the one novel, the two authors actually wrote material for a sequel back in 1989, putting it aside in the assumption that they’d never need it. Until now.
Neil Gaiman took to the stage at New York Comic Con this weekend along with executive producers Douglas Mackinnon, who also directed star David Tennant in Doctor Who, and Rob Wilkins, aka “Terry Pratchett’s voice on Earth.” Returning cast members Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service joined them, along with new cast member Quelin Sepulveda.
Sosanya and Service reflected on their roles in the first season, playing the satanic nuns Sister Loquacious and Sister Garrulous. For the second season, Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service will play two new roles… named Nina and Maggie.
“In order to make it clear to everyone reading the script [that they’d play the roles], I named the characters Maggie and Nina,” explained Neil Gaiman. “Writing Maggie and Nina was an absolute dream.”
And who are these new characters? Maggie runs a record shop near Aziraphale’s bookshop. And Nina runs a coffee shop near that with the unique name of “Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death.” The two actors explained that confusion sometimes arose onset, and even with the same names as their characters, people would still occasionally mix up their roles.
And speaking of mixed-up roles, Gaiman admitted that David Tennant, who plays Crowley the demon, and Michael Sheen, who plays Aziraphale the angel, keep talking about mixing up their roles. They even suggested that Gaiman write a Good Omens stage play where they could switch parts every night.
But in fact, Gaiman did switch one of their roles before filming. “Michael [Sheen] was meant to play Crowley; that’s where it all began,” Gaiman said, having known him and knowing he was a fan of the books. Around the middle of writing episode three, with Crowley hopping down the church aisle to avoid walking on holy ground, Gaiman thought, “maybe David Tennant.” But he didn’t want to break it to Sheen. So Gaiman had dinner with the actor, realizing at the end of the meal that Sheen in fact wanted to play Aziraphale more.
And as for who the characters were inspired by, Gaiman admitted that “Terry Pratchett took the things that I did that he thought were hilarious” and put much of that into Crowley. The two of them put themselves into both characters. However, Gaiman insists that Pratchett wanted people to think he proved the inspiration for Aziraphale.
Quelin Sepulveda joins the cast as a new angel named Muriel. In thinking about season 2, Neil Gaiman realized that heaven didn’t have any nice angels, “All we had were bastards.” Muriel is an angel who has spent thousands of years tucked away in an office but wants to get out to see Earth. As such, she provides much comic relief. NYCC attendees watched an exclusive clip wherein Muriel enters Aziraphale’s show under the guise of a “human police inspector constable.”
Though heaven gains a nicer angel through Muriel, hell will also get a meaner demon. Miranda Richardson, who played Madame Tracy in season one, will also return to Good Omens in a different role. This time, she’ll play the demon replacing Crowley. Gaiman explained that he wanted to bring Richardson back but felt that Madame Tracy had her story finished, so he created the new demon role for the upcoming season.
And what will the new season be about? “It’ll be about six episodes,” Neil dryly remarked before adding, “I will say there are some love stories in it.” He also promised that audiences would learn more about heaven and hell and would oddly learn things about Jane Austen that they likely didn’t know before.
At the end of the panel, actors Michael Sheen, David Tennant, and John Hamm surprised NYCC attendees over a Zoom call. Sheen and Tennant joked around, as they like to do. Hamm, who plays the angel Gabriel, shared that Gaiman asked if he would start the season by walking down the street in Soho completely nude. It seems like that may or may not have made it into the show, but Neil Gaiman wanted to see what he’d be up for in the new season.
We’ll see if Gabriel gets any nicer, or less dressed, when the second season of Good Omens arrives on Amazon Prime in summer 2023.
