Brow Beat

Amazon Is Giving Us a Good Omens Miniseries in 2018, if the World Hasn’t Ended by Then

Neil Gaiman will write, produce, and serve as showrunner.

Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly

The apocalypse is nigh, and fortunately, it promises to be very, very funny. Amazon announced on Thursday that it has greenlighted a limited series based on Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the 1990 fantasy-comedy co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Amazon will partner with BBC Studios for the six-episode series, with Gaiman writing, co-producing, and serving as showrunner.

Good Omens follows the exploits of Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon, who are enjoying their time on Earth too much to let something as silly as the end of days disrupt their way of life. To preserve the status quo, they’ll have to prevent Armageddon—but that will require them to locate the Antichrist, who happens to be an 11-year-old boy. Amazon’s production will set the story in 2018, which is also when the series will premiere.

Good Omens combines the best qualities of its two authors, making use of both Gaiman’s magical realism and Pratchett’s absurd humor, which makes it a smart choice for a TV adaptation. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam spent years trying to bring a version of Good Omens to the big screen, with Robin Williams and Johnny Depp as the leads, but to no avail. The novel has previously been adapted for radio, but the Amazon–BBC Studios co-production will be the first television production of the story. Gaiman first announced his intent to bring Good Omens to TV after receiving a posthumous letter from Pratchett, who died in 2015, urging him to write the adaptation by himself.

Gaiman’s had some good luck lately when it comes to adaptations of his work, with American Gods headed to Starz later this year. As for Good Omens, the series will debut sometime in 2018 on Amazon, followed by a broadcast on the BBC in the U.K.