Good Omens season 2 panel at NYCC reveals characters and release date

The Amazon Prime and BBC present Good Omens was a miraculous miniseries that not solely tailored Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel of the identical, but additionally sparked new followers and reignited passions in outdated ones. The present, very like the guide, follows a hedonistic angel named Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and a reluctantly noble demon named Crowley (David Tennant) who workforce as much as save the world from an impending apocalypse. And although Pratchett died earlier than a sequel was ever written, a second season of the present was introduced in 2021.

Beyond notable forged members returning and Gaiman’s involvement, nonetheless, there was little revealed about this mysterious follow-up. And at a New York Comic Con panel this yr, Gaiman initially didn’t reveal way more.

“It’ll be about six episodes,” mentioned 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.”

in the middle of a crowded restaurant, Aziraphale, dressed in lighter colors, and Crowley, dressed in mostly black, have a toast on Good Omens

Eventually, although, Gaiman, Mackinnon, and govt producer Rob Wilkins (longtime enterprise supervisor and good friend of Pratchett’s) did reveal that the second season is coming in the summertime of 2023. And whereas they remained fairly mum about plot particulars, they did supply some new character particulars. On stage, they had been joined by Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya, who performed two of the nuns from the primary season and will probably be taking part in two fully totally different characters within the second, together with new forged member Quelin Sepulveda, who will probably be becoming a member of in a job completely new to the Good Omens universe: an angel named Muriel.

Gaiman spoke slightly bit in regards to 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 defined. “All we had were bastards.”

Muriel, a woman with dark hair in a pale suit, standing in a cream-colored room in Good Omens

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 mentioned. “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 another new characters. Miranda Richardson, who performed kooky medium Madam Tracy, is a part of the the forged for season 2, however this time as Shax, a demon who has come to Earth to switch Crowley. And she isn’t the one character written with outdated forged members in thoughts.

“There were two characters in it, and I wanted them played by Maggie and Nina,” mentioned 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,” mentioned Service with amusing. “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!” mentioned Sosanya, leaping 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.”

Maggie, a blonde woman in a yellow cardigan, standing in a record shop in Good Omens

Tennant and Sheen joined by way of Zoom towards the tip of the panel, with Jon Hamm, who performs the angel Gabriel, asking them a couple of fan questions. Although Sheen and Tennant couldn’t be there in individual, the forged and filmmakers spoke extensively about them — particularly when it got here to sharing tales from season 1.

“The truth was Michael was meant to have played Crowley,” Gaiman mentioned. “[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 a clumsy dinner when he first confirmed Sheen the script and spent all the night time attempting to summon the heart to inform Sheen that he wished him to play Aziraphale as an alternative of Crowley — solely to study that Sheen had the identical actual thought.

As for embarking into this new period with no textual content to accompany it — and much more daunting, with out Terry Pratchett — the producers knew they’d a troublesome activity, however mentioned they did their greatest to honor Pratchett’s legacy.

“It’s interesting doing season 2 without the book,” mentioned 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,” mentioned 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 subsequent summer time. Check out the brand new poster: