When Good Omens debuted in 2019, the fantasy series received an enthusiastic response from fans — and eventually landed a renewal for a second season that would take four years to debut.
The series follows fussy angel and rare-book dealer Aziraphale (Michael Sheen, Masters of Sex) and fast-living demon Crowley (David Tennant, Doctor Who). In the first season, the Apocalypse is averted — somewhat — when an infant meant to become the Antichrist is swapped at birth. (You can thank an order of Satanic nuns for that small blessing.) For season two, premiering July 28 on Prime Video, coshowrunner and executive producer Neil Gaiman shook up the show by performing another pivotal swap — this time giving several returning actors brand new parts.
Included in the switch-up are two actresses who appeared in season one as Satanic nuns: Nina Sosanya as Sister Mary Loquacious and Maggie Service as Sister Theresa Garrulous. This season, the story ventures far afield of the original source material (a novel Gaiman cowrote with the late Terry Pratchett), and their characters now work in Soho. Operating near Aziraphale’s book shop, Nina sells coffee, while Maggie tries to sell vinyl records.
Gaiman decided to name the characters after the actresses, Service explains, so there would be no confusion as to who was meant to play each part. Still, there was “perpetual confusion” on set, Sosanya says, adding, “It’s kind of weird to have the same name as the character! You would think that it would be simpler.”
Service and Sosanya suspect that Gaiman wanted them back because they bounced off each other with great comedic rhythm, on-screen and off-, as evident in the DVD commentary they did together. But they are not alone in returning to the Good Omens-verse in new guises — Miranda Richardson, who portrayed psychic Madame Tracy, now slinks around as the zealous demon Shax, in a performance inspired by Agnes Moorehead’s Endora from Bewitched. “I would describe Shax as having a reptilian brain,” Richardson says. “She has a little too much power, and she doesn’t quite know what to do with it. She’s learning on the job.”
A tantalizing wrinkle to this set-up is that, at least for some actors, former characters could interact with new ones. Somewhere out there, Sister Mary — who reinvented herself in season one as Mary Hodges — continues to serve the corporate world and conceivably could pop by to be served a morning coffee from Nina’s shop. “Wouldn’t that be great if I had to do a whole scene talking to myself?” Sosanya wonders. “I wish I’d thought of suggesting that.” Meanwhile, Madame Tracy continues to summon spirits, and could be possessed again, even by Shax herself. Says Richardson, “It’s all part of the great plan, and I think it’s entirely likely in Neil’s world that this sort of thing can happen.”
Gaiman’s great plan remains ineffable, as the angels like to say, but pray that there’s an opportunity for such encounters in a possible season three.
The interviews for this story were completed before the start of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
