Neil Gaiman has been teasing for a while on The Twitters that he'd reveal the name of the person playing Satan in the TV adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett's beloved cult apocalyp-tome Good Omens. He took the opportunity of the Television Critics Association winter press tour to release the news that Benedict Cumberbatch has the voice role.
Good Omens, which has Gaiman running the show for a limited run of six episodes, promises to be by turns dark, philosophical and barkingly funny, if the source material is any indication. Angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant) have got rather fond of Earth and are thus annoyed to discover that the Antichrist is going to show up and bring it to an end. Unfortunately for both sides of the conflict, the child has been swapped with a boy who grows up living in a small British town, and the forces of good and evil race to find him.
Cumberbatch's Satan will be an all-CG creation, a massive satanic beast with very good diction. Frances McDormand is already voicing God, while the cast also includes Jon Hamm, Nick Offerman and Michael McKean.
Prime Video will air the series first, kicking off in May, followed by a run a few months later on the Beeb in the UK. The former has now put the opening titles for the show online, and we're getting some serious Dave McKean/Terry Gilliam (who tried to make a movie from the book for years) vibes here...
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