Even after the demon Crowley (David Tennant) planted a big wet kiss on the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) in Good Omens’ second season finale, the two didn’t become a lovey-dovey couple. Aziraphale took off for the heavens to serve as Supreme Archangel. Crowley, meanwhile, went on to wallow over the lack of reciprocation and gambled his beloved Bentley away.
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But, years later, when Jesus Christ unexpectedly departed Heaven and goes missing on Earth, Aziraphale recruits Crowley to find him. Throw in a murder mystery and unspoken tension, along with the latest Armageddon threatening to wipe out both Heaven and Hell, and the clock is ticking away. Can the rascally lovebirds resolve the Second Coming crisis and save their relationship?
Director and Executive Producer Rachel Talalay spoke to ComicBook about Good Omens’ shrinking episode count, Aziraphale’s brilliant disguise, the power of love and first, why Jon Hamm’s Gabriel isn’t involved. We asked why he’s around in name only:
“In the six-episode version, there was a little moment with him. Just the idea we could bring back absolutely everybody, he was one of absolutely everybody coming back for a moment. A lot of the choices of who came back, outside of the heart of it, was availability and timing and financial. As the story compressed and compressed, this was the concentration of our story, and these are the people we needed. I was disappointed, though, because I had worked with Jon Hamm twice before he became Jon Hamm.”
The rest of our interview with Rachel Talalay follows:
ComicBook: Good Omens‘ third season was initially conceptualized as a six-episode arc. What kind of story did you want to tell going into this, and how did this shorter special affect that trajectory?
Rachel Talalay: When I was hired, they were already developing the six episodes, so I wasn’t really very involved. I knew where it was going, and I knew what Terry Pratchett wanted… what Rob Wilkins as Terry Pratchett’s person… wanted the story to be. But I really only became more engaged in the scripts when we were bringing them down to the 90 minutes.
They did an incredible job of distilling a lot of additional stories. Sometimes, when you see complaints about seasons one and two, and there are very few, you will see, “I didn’t like X episode because it went on too many tangents.”
Helping it be a really focused 96 minutes, and absolutely, 100 percent a Crowley-Aziraphale story, with really interesting mysteries and things going on, and all the philosophy and religion. But, ultimately, it’s a love story.
Last time we saw our odd couple, Crowley had planted a kiss on Aziraphale before he departed for the Heavens. What’s been the fallout from there? There’s been a little bit of time jump. Where do we meet them and what are they up to?
We can tease that things have not gone in the direction that either of them expected. We find Whickber Street has changed. We find going back to heaven was not what Aziraphale had hoped it would be. On the other hand, he has kept his heart and soul in the right place. It’s an important exploration for the audience to see what those changes have wrought.
You have to love not only the characters’ chemistry, but their sense of humor. Was there a scene that made you laugh when filming?
They always made me laugh. Everything between them. Tell me what scene you particularly enjoyed
There was a sequence where Aziraphale adopts a disguise to infiltrate Hell.
And he gave him one name and Muriel mispronounces it. It has that kind of humor. That is Michael’s showcase scene and it was an absolute joy to work with him on that. I feel like everybody came up to Michael’s level for those moments.
That was a specialty showcase moment. Crowley had that in series two. Crowley being in heaven and having to do much more than, “What’s he doing here?” He’s just has the Crowleyness of him and you get to put him in gold and make him look amazing. Aziraphale had his moment where he’s trying to do a good job at disguising. That was fun, too, finding that balance of he has to be good enough that it’s not obvious, but he has to be not quite so good that it’s not funny.
There was a moment where we were playing with some test makeups, where I couldn’t tell it was Michael. I said to him, “I know we’ll know it’s you, but it’s not as much fun if it feels like we just put your voice over somebody else.” Then he really made quite a few changes just feeling like, “Yes, I am suddenly too much of another character.” Both Michael and David’s instincts are unbelievable. Just stand back and watch the magic.
You called this a love story, and we talked about that kiss. Has absence made the heart grow fonder? How much are they still trying to figure out what they mean to each other?
That’s life. I think that’s love. I think that’s the development of all relationships. That’s one of the reasons the show works is because there is so much humanity in the questions about love.
I’m not going to spoil anything about season three except to say much more than, of course, that colors everything in the relationship and where it’s going. We left on such an incredible cliffhanger and devastation at the end of series two.
Even though they don’t tackle it head-on in the beginning, it definitely weighs heavily on both characters.
To me, the first time they meet, it’s a very quiet scene. It’s not a talky, big explosive scene. It’s a very quiet scene. I feel like what they don’t say is as, or more important, than what they do say. I really wanted it to play in the pauses. Often, its “Cut to the dialogue. Cut to the dialogue.” In this case, it was, “Cut to the silence. Cut to the inability to communicate.” I feel like that’s poetry, as well. They are just amazing.
What kind of conversations did you have about where Crowley and Aziraphale should ultimately end up?
That was very much worked out by Terry Pratchett. That was an absolute. That was in the six episodes and stayed the same through the shorter version. That wasn’t a debate or dialogue. That was what was decided. That was the reason to make it because that’s the ending Terry wanted.
Good Omens is streaming on Prime Video now. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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