Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens To Become Amazon Miniseries

Literary adaptations are currently an incredibly popular trend in television, with Netflix’s revival of A Series of Unfortunate Events premiering this past week, and highly-anticipated adaptations of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale and Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods set to debut later this year.

As of today, another Gaiman work, Good Omens, can now be added to that list. Amazon has greenlit a miniseries based on the 1990 novel, which Neil Gaiman co-wrote with fellow fantasy author Terry Pratchett.

The apocalyptic series will consist of 6 hour-long episodes, and is set to premiere in 2018. This release date is incredibly poignant, as the novel itself, which tells of a time “when the Apocalypse is near and Final Judgment is set to descend upon humanity,” was initially set in 2018.

Amazon’s plot synopsis for the comedic miniseries explains that the series will follow “Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon,” who have lived on Earth since ‘The Beginning’ and have become accustomed to their quiet lifestyle.

Neither Aziraphale and Crowley are looking forward to the apocalypse, and set on a plan to stop the rise of the antichrist, a foretold element of the end times. The only problem is that someone has misplaced the son of Satan, and the angel and demon have been focusing their efforts on the wrong child.

The Amazon miniseries will be co-produced with BBC Studios, Narrativia, and The Blank Corporation, and is set to have its television debut on the BBC after it premieres on Prime Video.

In a statement from Joe Lewis, Head of Comedy and Drama at Amazon Studios, the network voiced their excitement to be taking on the series.

“Spanning not only the universe but also the entirety of time, Neil Gaiman has created a story that may be the largest ever told on television. We’re excited to be working with BBC Studios to bring Neil and Terry Pratchett’s incredible book to life and to Prime members everywhere.”

Gaiman, who is set to serve as showrunner and writer of the adaptation, is also excited to see the project come about. Film and television adaptations of Good Omens have been planned since as early as 2002, to no success. After Pratchett’s death in 2015, Gaiman was set on not moving forward with any further adaptations of the novel, until he recieved a letter Pratchett had written him before his death telling him to continue on with the project.

“Almost thirty years ago,” Gaiman explains in Amazon’s official statement, “Terry Pratchett and I wrote the funniest novel we could about the end of the world, populated with angels and demons, not to mention an eleven-year old Antichrist, witchfinders and the four horsepeople of the Apocalypse. It became many people’s favourite book. Three decades later, it’s going to make it to the screen. I can’t think of anyone we’d rather make it with than BBC Studios, and I just wish Sir Terry were alive to see it.”

While Gaiman fans will have to wait until 2018 to see Good Omens come to life, they can pass the time with American Gods when the series (which Gaiman is executive producing) debuts on Starz in April of this year.