After a four year absence, Good Omens is finally back on our screens with its second season.
Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novel was a huge hit when it debuted back in 2019, and introduced us to a brilliant on-screen partnership in the form of stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen – who got on so well that they’ve since filmed three seasons of the lockdown meta-comedy Staged, playing versions of themselves.
In Good Omens, the pair play the devilish Crowley and the angelic Aziraphale, who end up getting mired in a plot to save the world from the impending apocalypse.
In need of a refresher? Get up to speed with the plot with our cheat sheet (which includes spoilers for Good Omens season one).
Demon Crowley (Tennant) and angel Aziraphale (Sheen) are the earthly representatives for Heaven and Hell. They’ve both become fond of life on Earth over the years, and when they learn that Armageddon is just around the corner, they form an unlikely alliance in the hope of preventing the world from ending.
In order to pull this off, they need to track down the missing Antichrist, who turns out to be Adam Young, an 11-year-old boy who has grown up in a normal human family and has no idea that his job is to destroy Earth.
When Adam (played by Sam Taylor Buck) learns that he is in fact the Antichrist, he decides that he doesn’t want to use his powers to destroy the world if it means losing the people he is closest to. Instead, he and his friends battle against the four horsemen of the apocalypse and manage to prevent them from launching nuclear weapons that will wipe out earth.
When the plan is thwarted, Adam’s father – aka Satan himself, played by Benedict Cumberbatch – comes down to Earth in a bid to force him to restart the apocalypse. With Crowley and Aziraphale’s help, though, Adam is able to send his dad back to Hell, and return the world to normal.
Odd couple Crowley and Aziraphale are charged with treason by their respective bosses in Hell and Heaven, and sentenced to death – but by disguising themselves as each other, they manage to survive this.
When the second series begins, archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) has gone missing from Heaven, eventually turning up at Aziraphale’s Soho bookshop. The archangel seems to have lost his memories, and it’s up to Crowley and Aziraphale to work out what has happened to him, while also hiding him from the forces of Heaven and Hell, who are doing their best to track him down.
Alongside Michael, David, and Mad Men star Jon, Doon Mackichan will be back as archangel Michael, with Derek Jacobi reprising the role of Metatron, God’s spokesperson. Elizabeth Berrington will also be back for round two, playing the demon Dagon, also known as Lord of the Files, and Gloria Obianyo will return as angel Uriel.
A handful of actors who previously appeared in small roles in season one are returning, too, but this time they’ll be playing completely different characters. Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya, who played a pair of nuns in the first series, will be back, this time playing shop owners named Maggie and Nina (which is easy to remember, at least).
After appearing as medium Madame Tracy in season one, Miranda Richardson has returned to the show as Shax, a demon who has replaced Crowley in Hell’s pecking order since he left for Earth. And Paul Adefaya, who played a demon the first time around, is back as a different demon named Eric. Got it?
There are plenty of new faces joining the show this time around, with Tin Star’s Abigail Lawrie appearing as Elspeth, a Victorian gravedigger, and Bridgerton’s Shelley Conn taking on the role of Beelzebub, replacing Anna Maxwell Martin (who was reportedly prevented from taking part in season two due to scheduling conflicts).
Silent Witness star Liz Carr plays angel Saraqueael, with Quelin Sepulveda cast as Muriel, the angel charged with keeping an eye on Aziraphale when he’s suspected of harbouring Gabriel.
David’s eldest son Ty Tennant also makes an appearance in season two, playing Ennon, the son of Job, in a flashback to biblical times. And to keep things in the family, Job is in fact played by Ty’s grandfather, and David’s father-in-law, Peter Davison (who’s also a former Doctor Who).
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Reviews for the second season have once again praised David and Michael’s on-screen partnership, with The Guardian writing: “It feels as if they have been together for ever, but their on-screen partnership only dates back to 2019 and the first season of Good Omens.”
The Independent, meanwhile, hailed round two as “a biblical buddy comedy of epic proportions”, and The Telegraph noted that “it’s clear that Sheen and Tennant adore working together” – but the paper also suggested that “there are moments when the fog of luvviedom becomes all-obscuring and gets in the way of the plot”.
In a message posted on Twitter, writer Neil Gaiman said that although a third season of the show is yet to be confirmed by Amazon, it is “all planned and plotted”.
He went on to promise that a potential season three would “take the story to a satisfying end”, revealing that if he wasn’t currently on strike as a member of the WGA, he’d be working on it now.
“Our set is still standing in a studio in Bathgate and we would all love to get back there and finish the story in the way Terry and I plotted, long ago,” he added.
We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed, then.
Good Omens seasons one and two are streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.
