Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is returning to television with a starring role in BBC Two and Amazon Prime Video’s Good Omens. The six-part series is based on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel, and Jon Hamm is confirmed to take on the role of the archangel Gabriel, the primary messenger of God. He joins a cast that includes Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex) as Aziraphale and David Tennant (Broadchurch, Doctor Who) as Crowley, Adria Arjona (Emerald City), Nina Sosanya (Sister Mary Loquacious), Jack Whitehall (Mother’s Day), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul), Miranda Richardson (Stronger), Ned Dennehy (Versailles), and Ariyon Bakare (Rogue One).
“I read Good Omens almost twenty years ago. I thought it was one of the funniest, coolest books I’d ever read. It was also, obviously, unfilmable. Two months ago Neil sent me the scripts, and I knew I had to be in it,” said Hamm.
Filming is currently underway. Douglas Mackinnon (Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Outlander) is directing and executive producing. Gaiman adapted his book into the series and serves as the showrunner.
Discussing Gabriel’s expanded role in the series, Neil Gaiman said, “Once we had finished writing Good Omens, back in the dawn of prehistory, Terry Pratchett and I started plotting a sequel. There would have been a lot of angels in the sequel. When Good Omens was first published and was snapped up for the first time by Hollywood, Terry and I took joy in introducing our angels into the plot of a movie that was never made. So when, almost thirty years later, I started writing Good Omens for TV, one thing I knew was that our angels would have to be in there.
The leader of these angels is Gabriel. He is everything that Aziraphale isn’t: he’s tall, good-looking, charismatic and impeccably dressed. We were fortunate that Jon Hamm was available, given that he is already all of these things without even having to act. We were even more fortunate that he’s a fan of the books and a remarkable actor.”
Amazon Prime Video will air the six-part series in 2019, followed by a premiere on BBC Two.
The Plot: Good Omens takes place in 2018 when the Apocalypse is near and Final Judgment is set to descend upon humanity. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch (the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.
So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, and tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming war. And…someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.
