Amazon Prime Video announces premiere date for Good Omens
The long-awaited adaptation of Sir Terry Pratchett’s novel will arrive in May.
Amazon Prime Video’s long-awaited TV adaptation of Sir Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens will arrive in May, the streaming giant has announced.
The six-part series, featuring an ensemble cast including David Tennant, Michael Sheen and Jon Hamm, will premiere on May 31.
It was also revealed Benedict Cumberbatch will star as Satan.
Speaking at a Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena, California on Wednesday, Neil Gaiman, the show’s executive producer and co-author of the book alongside Sir Terry, revealed all six episodes will arrive at the same time.
He added: “Plan for your binge dropping then.”
Oscar-winning American actress Frances McDormand will play God in the show, and executive producer Douglas Mackinnon said they needed a performer who could give her a “run for her money” in the role of Satan.
Joking they had found a young British actor who “needed a lot of direction”, he revealed Cumberbatch will star.
During the panel, Gaiman was asked about the leading characters, with Tennant being Scottish and Sheen being Welsh.
He said: “The book is quintessentially English. It’s not a British book, it’s an English book.”
The author added that it boasts “a peculiarly English sensibility”.
Gaiman said Tennant and Sheen, both seated to his left, brought a PG Wodehouse-like quality to the show.
Gaiman also said Sir Terry, who died in 2015 following a battle with Alzheimer’s, asked him as a “last request” to bring the novel to television.
At the panel, Amazon showed attendees an extended clip from the first episode, showing Sheen – dressed in white with bleached blonde hair and Tennant – dressed in black with his hair in red ringlets – side by side discussing good and evil.
The series is based on the novel Good Omens: The Nice And Accurate Prophecies Of Agnes Nutter, Witch, co-written by Sir Terry and Gaiman.
Facing Armageddon, Sheen’s fussy angel and Tennant’s loose-living demon have to form an unlikely alliance after growing fond of life on Earth.
But they have lost the antichrist, an 11-year-old boy unaware that he is meant to bring upon the end of days, forcing them to embark on an adventure to find him and save the world before it is too late.
