Good Omens Co-Creator Originally Wanted Hugh Grant to Play Aziraphale

Good Omens co-creator and writer Neil Gaiman reveals that he originally envisioned Hugh Grant as Aziraphale early in the show's development.


While Michael Sheen may have earned plenty of praise for his performance as Aziraphale in Good Omens, co-creator Neil Gaiman originally pictured a very different actor in the angelic role.


Writing on his personal Tumblr account, the acclaimed writer explained that since Sheen was originally meant to play Crowley, he was hoping Hugh Grant might have joined the series. "I remember spending a lot of time pondering who Aziraphale could be back when Crowley was going to be Michael, and I think Hugh Grant was a leading contender in my head, but then somewhere in the middle of writing episode 3 Crowley became David Tennant and Michael Sheen became Aziraphale and once that had been decided it couldn’t have been anyone else," Gaiman noted. He also briefly touches on how he thinks the demonic protagonist would have been different if Sheen had ultimately played him, suggesting the character would have been a lot more "sinister."


Good Omens, which recently released its second season on Prime Video, follows Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and demon that work together to prevent the end of the world after discovering they enjoy living amongst humanity. Based on Gaiman's novel that he co-wrote with beloved author Terry Pratchett, the series has earned generally positive reviews from fans and critics, many of whom have championed the series' clever adaptation of the source material and compelling performances from both Sheen and Tennant.


Good Omens' Future


As for what awaits in the future, Prime Video has yet to confirm whether Good Omens will return for a third season but Gaiman has insisted that if it does happen it will also be the show's final chapter. The writer has stated that Season 3 is "planned and plotted" but he has yet to begin actually writing it due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that have effectively put Hollywood on hold for the foreseeable future.


As for the actors, Sheen and Tennant have insisted that if fans want to see Season 3 eventually land at Prime Video, all they need to do is support the show. "Well, if you've seen where Series 2 ends, there's certainly the teasing of further tales to come, isn't there? Whether we will ever find out what those tales are is in the lap of the audience," Tennant said.


Good Omens Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Prime Video.

Popular posts from this blog

Sofía Vergara Is the Cocaine Godmother in First Griselda Photos

Netflix shares a sneak peek of the miniseries Griselda, created by the team behind Narcos & starring Sofía Vergara as Miami drug lord Griselda Blanco. Netflix gives viewers their first look at the upcoming miniseries Griselda, produced by and starring Sofía Vergara. First shared by Entertainment Weekly, the preview images show Vergara in the title role as Griselda Blanco, a Colombian immigrant who became involved in America's burgeoning cocaine business in the 1970s and a prominent figure in the Miami drug wars of '80's. The series was created by Eric Newman and Ingrid Escajeda alongside Doug Miro and Carlo Bernand, who previously created the similarly-themed Narcos for the streamer. Another Narcos alum, Andrés Baiz, will direct the series, though he specified that Griselda will have a different feel to the team's previous collaboration. "The stylistic landmarks of Narcos are not in Griselda," Baiz explained. "Griselda has its own identity ... its own
Read more

In ‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite,’ a canceled sex researcher is reclaimed

It shouldn’t be surprising by now that history is full of groundbreaking women whose accomplishments are overlooked and whose names get buried. Sex researcher Shere Hite’s near-Stalinist erasure from popular consciousness after writing an all-time-bestselling barnburner of feminist self-actualization — 1976’s “The Hite Report on Female Sexuality” — is the mystery that undergirds documentary filmmaker Nicole Newnham’s evocative, thrilling work of cold-case portraiture, “The Disappearance of Shere Hite.” The Missouri-born Hite had been a social-history graduate student at Columbia, chafing at the school’s dismissal of her interest in sexuality, when her activism in the burgeoning Second Wave feminist movement led her to start a project centered on women’s sexual experiences. Charting and analyzing thousands of open-ended questionnaires submitted anonymously by women of all stripes, she shocked an unsuspecting public by revealing in “The Hite Report” that women didn’t need men to achieve
Read more

Every Underworld Movie, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

Fans and critics have shared opinions of the Underworld franchise, and Rotten Tomatoes is no exception. The Underworld series is made up of action-horror films revolving around the ongoing war between vampires and werewolves, each trying to destroy the other. Amidst this conflict, the love story between Selene, a powerful vampire, and Michael, a hybrid being, is a recurring theme. Throughout the series, figures on both sides prove to have hidden agendas. At times, it's hard to tell who is an ally and who is an enemy. One group may be on the brink of extinction, but this might just be what they want the enemies to think. Eventually, even humans learn of the secret war. The Underworld franchise, made up of at least five films and an animated short, has an interesting history. There have even been planned canceled crossovers with I, Frankenstein, Blade, and Resident Evil. Thanks to its fan base, an Underworld reboot had also been planned for the small screen. This is in addition to th
Read more