Commenting on the casting, showrunner Neil Gaiman says: "There may not be anyone alive who can deadpan a line quite as well as Nick Offerman. He's a terrific performer, and has to say a lot of things in Good Omens that are humanly impossible to deliver with a straight face. Fortunately, Nick is not entirely human. We are very lucky to have him."
Offerman will be taking on the role of the US Ambassador and father of the child Warlock, mistakenly believed to be the Antichrist.
Gaiman revealed the news by tweeting this picture of himself with Offerman with the following caption: "Seen here testing local drums for a 2 year old for volume+suitability (none of them were loud enough): our Secret Guest Star. Ladies, Gentlemen & All Others, as the father (sort of) of Warlock Dowling, the (Not-) Antichrist, I present the temporarily beardless Mr @Nick_Offerman."
Nick Offerman adds: "If you had told me when I first read Good Omens in the early 90s that I would one day visit South Africa to giggle with Neil Gaiman at laptop-screened footage of Dr. Who and David Frost dancing because I was assaying a role in the adaptation of said book, I would likely have offered to purchase some of whatever you must be smoking. But here I am, still giggling at the luck of it."
Based on the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and produced by BBC Studios, the six-part series for Prime Video boasts an already impressive cast. In addition to Sheen (Masters of Sex) and Tennant (Doctor Who), Jon Hamm plays the Archangel Gabriel, alongside Miranda Richardson as Madame Tracy, Michael McKean as Shadwell, Jack Whitehall as Newt, Adria Arjona as Anathema Device, Anna Maxwell Martin as Beelzebub, along with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Derek Jacobi, Daniel Mays, Sian Brooke and Mireille Enos.
Good Omens was commissioned for Prime Video and for BBC Two by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two; Shane Allen, Controller, BBC Comedy Commissioning and BBC commissioning editor Gregor Sharp. It is being produced by the comedy team at BBC Studios, the BBC’s commercial production arm, Narrativia and The Blank Corporation, in association with BBC Worldwide.
Good Omens will launch globally on Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories in 2019 including in the UK, where it will also air on BBC Two at a later date. The series will be brought to the screen by the highly acclaimed director/executive producer Douglas Mackinnon, whose credits include Knightfall, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Outlander and the standalone Victorian episode of Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, winner of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie last year.
Picture: Twitter.
