The Amazon Prime and BBC show Good Omens was a miraculous miniseries that not only adapted Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel of the same, but also sparked new fans and reignited passions in old ones. The show, much like the book, follows a hedonistic angel named Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and a reluctantly noble demon named Crowley (David Tennant) who team up to save the world from an impending apocalypse. And though Pratchett died before a sequel was ever written, a second season of the show was announced in 2021.
Beyond notable cast members returning and Gaiman’s involvement, however, there has been little revealed about this mysterious follow-up. And at a New York Comic Con panel this year, Gaiman initially did not reveal much more.
“It’ll be about six episodes,” said Gaiman.
“And Aziraphale and Crowley will be in it,” added Good Omens director Douglas Mackinnon.
“I will say there are some love stories in it,” Gaiman continued. “I will say you will learn a lot about Jane Austen you didn’t know before. There’s a lot more heaven and a lot more hell.”
Photo: Chris Raphael/Amazon Studios, BBC Studios
Eventually, though, Gaiman, Mackinnon, and executive producer Rob Wilkins (longtime business manager and friend of Pratchett’s) did reveal that the second season is coming in the summer of 2023. And while they remained pretty mum about plot details, they did offer some new character details. On stage, they were joined by Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya, who played two of the nuns from the first season and will be playing two completely different characters in the second, along with new cast member Quelin Sepulveda, who will be joining in a role totally new to the Good Omens universe: an angel named Muriel.
Gaiman spoke a little bit about the creation of this new character.
“When [Good Omens writer] John Finnemore and I were talking about what we wanted in season 2, we realized that one thing we didn’t have in heaven was — apart from Aziraphale — any nice, well-meaning angels,” he explained. “All we had were bastards.”
Photo: Mark Mainz/Amazon Studios, BBC Studios
Thus, they created Muriel. And as Sepulveda described the character, she is “so gullible and curious and she’s a bit chatty.”
“Muriel has spent about 6,000 years or more in the same office in heaven,” Gaiman said. “Just filing things and reading things, just hoping someone will come in and the day will get more interesting.”
In addition to Muriel, Gaiman spoke about some other new characters. Miranda Richardson, who played kooky medium Madam Tracy, is part of the the cast for season 2, but this time as Shax, a demon who has come to Earth to replace Crowley. And she isn’t the only character written with old cast members in mind.
“There were two characters in it, and I wanted them played by Maggie and Nina,” said Gaiman. “And in order to make it clear to everyone reading the script that those characters were going to be played by Maggie and Nina, I called them Maggie and Nina.”
“I think it was a bit lazy,” Mackinnon added.
“I play Maggie,” said Service with a laugh. “She runs a record shop which is besides Aziraphale’s bookshop in SoHo. It’s a shop that’s been passed through the generations. My shop look looks across…”
“Another shop!” said Sosanya, jumping in. “Which is a coffee shop. It’s called Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death. Nina is a bit mintier than I am. She runs this independent coffee shop in SoHo. She is good at dealing with people who come into a coffee shop in SoHo. She’s not afraid of dealing with people.”
Image: Amazon Studios, BBC Studios
Photo: Mark Mainz/Amazon Studios, BBC Studios
Tennant and Sheen joined via Zoom toward the end of the panel, with Jon Hamm, who plays the angel Gabriel, asking them a few fan questions. Although Sheen and Tennant couldn’t be there in person, the cast and filmmakers spoke extensively about them — especially when it came to sharing stories from season 1.
“The truth was Michael was meant to have played Crowley,” Gaiman said. “[Then] I wrote a scene where Crowley comes down the center aisle of a church, hopping like a man on a beach on a hot day, because it’s Holy Ground, and then I thought… David Tennant would be good at that.”
Gaiman recalled an awkward dinner when he first showed Sheen the script and spent the entire night trying to summon the guts to tell Sheen that he wanted him to play Aziraphale instead of Crowley — only to learn that Sheen had the same exact thought.
As for embarking into this new era without a text to accompany it — and even more daunting, without Terry Pratchett — the producers knew they had a tough task, but said they did their best to honor Pratchett’s legacy.
“It’s interesting doing season 2 without the book,” said Mackinnon. “What Neil and the other writers have written for us is more Good Omens, and it has Terry right through.”
“I want to bring Terry to set every day, but it’s not a difficult task,” said Wilkins. “Because everyone knows the book has two authors. And Neil is there every day.”
The first season of Good Omens is streaming on Prime Video. The second will come next summer. Check out the new poster:
Image: Amazon Studios, BBC Studios
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