You can’t keep a good apocalypse down. David Tennant and Michael Sheen are returning as the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, respectively, for a surprise six-episode season 2 of the show Good Omens on Amazon Prime. Neil Gaiman, who co-wrote the book the first season was based on alongside Terry Pratchett, made the announcement on Twitter, and he is returning to executive produce and co-showrun with executive producer Douglas Mackinnon, who is also coming back to direct.
What glorious (and dangerous) trouble will our favorite angel and demon find themselves in this time? 😇😈 Good news! #GoodOmens is returning for Season 2 on @PrimeVideo. pic.twitter.com/cFJQMo0Vkj
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 29, 2021
Good Omens season 2, despite originally slated to only be a limited series, will expand beyond Gaiman’s book, which ended at the same point the show did with Crowley and Aziraphale thwarting the impending apocalypse and saving mankind. Both characters are settling back into their previous life of hanging out on Earth when a messenger appears to deliver them an entirely new mystery to solve. It isn’t exactly clear if this is a heavenly messenger of some sort or just a guy delivering something, but it will kick off a new adventure for the pair.
While a sequel novel was never actually published, Gaiman says that he and Pratchett had always tossed around plans to write more Good Omens books. “It’s been 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. (I got to use bits of the sequel in the TV series version of Good Omens — that’s where our angels came from.) Terry was clear on what he wanted from Good Omens on the telly. He wanted the story told, and if that worked, he wanted the rest of the story told.”
Good Omens was smashingly good and resoundingly well received by nearly everyone. The casting of Sheen and Tennant as the show’s protagonists made a great show even better, and it’s easy to see why Amazon was happy to continue the series on, even if it’s just for a six-episode season. The studio is getting working on it quickly with Good Omens season 2 filming later this year in Scotland.
Both Sheen and Tennant also commented on their chance to return to the world of Good Omens:
“Personally I’m against it, but the world isn’t going to just save itself, is it?” said Sheen. “If David and I can manage to not fall out too badly this time, it may even have a chance of getting finished.”
“The return of Good Omens is great news for me, personally,” Tennant commented. “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.”
