The devillishly delightful Good Omens was very successfully adapted for TV thanks to BBC, Amazon, Michael Sheen and David Tennant, and now some unexpected news arrives that a sequel has been confirmed.
At first, there’s a fundamental fear that it’s a forced cash grab with little basis in the source material, but Gaiman has helped to put those fears to rest.
“It’s thirty-one years since Good Omens was published, which means it’s thirty-two years since Terry Pratchett and I lay in our respective beds in a Seattle hotel room at a World Fantasy Convention, and plotted the sequel,” says Gaiman. “I got to use bits of the sequel in Good Omens — that’s where our angels came from. Terry’s not here any longer, but when he was, we had talked about what we wanted to do with ‘Good Omens,’ and where the story went next. And now, thanks to BBC Studios and Amazon, I get to take it there.”
“I have enlisted some wonderful collaborators, and John Finnemore has come on board to carry the torch with me. There are so many questions people have asked about what happened next (and also, what happened before) to our favourite Angel and Demon. Here are the answers you’ve been hoping for. We are back in Soho, and all through time and space, solving a mystery, which starts with an angel wandering through Soho, with no memory.”
From a BBC press release
With the stars together again who absolutely inhabited the roles, it’s so exciting to see them come back and take these characters into uncharted territory. Just look at their comments about it all from the same release:
Michael Sheen says: “Personally I’m against it, but the world isn’t going to just save itself, is it? If David and I can manage to not fall out too badly this time it may even have a chance of getting finished.”
David Tennant says: “The return of Good Omens is great news for me, personally. As I get to work with Michael again, and I get to say Neil’s wonderful words once more. It’s probably less good for the universe as it almost certainly means there will be some fresh existential threat to its existence to deal with, but, you know – swings and roundabouts…”
No doubt the fate of all existence will be at stake once again. How lovely.
Seamus runs Byteside. You may also have spotted his words at the Australian Financial Review, the ABC, Junkee, Gamespot, The Esports Observer, CNET, Gizmodo and a few other spots over the years. He's very happy that he gets to nerd out for a living.
