“If you’re going to burn it down, you should have told us!” laughs Good Omens set decorator Bronwyn Franklin, explaining why the set for Aziraphale’s bookshop is, by her estimation, “five to 10 per cent” different this time around.
“We never realised it’d be a second series, because it was one book, one Good Omens series. And then everyone loved it so much that Amazon said we really want another.” The surprise series renewal meant redressing the bookshop set from scratch, after it was burned down by an errant candle at the end of season one, episode four. (Hence Aziraphale’s preference for electric candles in the second run.)
Is that particular set still standing by the end of season two? “It’s all still here,” confirms Franklin. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll ever make anything again,” she says as a caveat, but this time around at least, “they don’t burn down the bookshop.”
That set and many others including Whickber Street’s magic shop, record and coffee shop, remain standing at Pyramid Studios, Bathgate, where Den of Geek‘s Juliette Harrisson is talking to Good Omens’ production team in July 2023. Whether the much-wanted season three will be announced depends on the success of season two, everybody stresses.
Good Omens season two continues the story of angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant), two celestial creatures now living on Earth, whose lives have been intertwined for millennia. It’s based on new material written by Neil Gaiman – the co-writer with Terry Pratchett of the 1990 novel on which season one was adapted – alongside John Finnemore.
A Definite Beginning, Middle and End
During their Good Omens book tour in the early 1990s, Pratchett and Gaiman discussed a potential story for a follow-up that was never written. Season three, if commissioned, would finish the tale, suggests Franklin. “I can say there will never be a season four because Terry and Neil have a story arc.”
Executive Producer Rob Wilkins, who also manages the late Terry Pratchett’s estate and production company, says the same thing. “There’s a definite beginning, middle and end to Good Omens. I didn’t realise that in fact, the beginning, the middle, and the end actually happened across potentially three seasons.”
“We are heading towards the ideas that Terry and Neil, in a hotel in Seattle, back in 1990 when they were touring Good Omens all those years ago, they came up with together for where the story would go.”
Wilkins says it’s an insult to describe season two merely as a stepping stone or a bridge to get to season three. “It’s so much more than that.” Season two introduces new characters Nina and Maggie, neighbours of Aziraphale’s whose romantic story “is its own thing”, says Wilkins. Add to that the story of naked angel Gabriel’s surprise trip to Earth, and season two does a great deal else than just pass time until we reach act three (read our five-star review here).
As for when we’ll hear about a season three renewal, everybody is very much keeping their fingers crossed. According to Franklin, it’s all down to the final episode. “The cliffhanger will speak for itself in whether or not we get to make any more of this.”
You heard the woman. Get watching.
Good Omens season two is available to stream now on Prime Video.