Recently, at SXSW, Neil Gaiman and the cast of Good Omens showed off some footage from the upcoming series and discussed its origins and shape. And according to Neil Gaiman himself, there was more to getting this work adapted than just his desire to see it unfold on the screen.
Gaiman, of course, co-wrote the 1990 book with the late Terry Pratchett. Its story, about a demon and an angel working together to prevent the apocalypse, was challenging to adapt, and Gaiman found himself struggling to find a home for it.
“It probably was impossible but we managed to do it somehow anyway,” Gaiman said, as transcribed by Entertainment Weekly. “Pratchett and I could both picture this thing. We went out and talked to a lot of writers of television we admired and said, ‘Would you like to do this?’ and they explained that they wouldn’t, because…they couldn’t quite get a grip on it and couldn’t see how you could do it without changing it too much. I was probably ready to just let it slide but Terry wrote to me and said, ‘You’re the only person who has the same amount of love for Good Omens as I do and you understand it and you have to make this so I can see it before I die.’ And then he died. Which left it as this awful last request. I had to do it.”
That’s a tough one. Gaiman’s passion for Good Omens comes from more than just his love for his own book: it was a dying wish from his co-author.
Now, though, the series does have a home, as a six-episode miniseries on Amazon Prime, which, according to Gaiman, will tell the complete story of the book with no followups. A one and done deal, which, for a book like Good Omens, seems just about right.
The series will be premiering on June 1st on Amazon Prime.