HOME / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

Neil Gaiman had Michael Sheen in mind while writing Good Omens’ Aziraphale, #AskNeilGaiman reveals

'Good Omens', which will release in May, sees the good and the bad angels join hands to save the world from an impending apocalypse

Neil Gaiman is at it again, and this time he is getting candid about BBC Two's 'Good Omens', directed by Douglas Mackinnon, starring David Tennant as Crowley, a demon who has lived on Earth since the dawn of creation, and Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, an angel who has lived on Earth as long as Crowley.

While the story follows the adorable friendship between the demon and the angel, as they try to save the world from impending apocalypse, it turns out, 'Good Omens' writer, Gaiman, always had Sheen in his mind while writing the character for Aziraphale.

While speaking with fans on Twitter, a trend he started yesterday with the hashtag #AskNeilGaiman, Gaiman confessed he always wanted Sheen's goodness to help establish the character of Aziraphale.

When a fan asked, "As a big fan of Michael Sheen, I would like to know how the idea of casting him came out", Gaiman replied, "I've known @michaelsheen for a decade, and as I wrote Good Omens I kept thinking how much Michael's essential niceness and goodness would shine if he was playing Aziraphale. So we had dinner and I asked him, and he said yes." We all know Sheen's docile representation of Aziraphale has served as the most suitable contrast to Tennant's swaggy demon.

Fans also asked him about Jack Whitehall's character, Newton Pulsifer, a descendant of the witchfinder who burned Agnes Nutter at the stake and who teamed up with Anathema to help stop the end of the world. A fan joked, "I want to know what @jackwhitehall had to say when you decided he was perfect for the role of Newt... " Gaiman quickly stated that Whitehall is just as awkward as his onscreen character, Newt. "He had loved Good Omens since he was a schoolboy, and in real life is as gloriously awkward as Newt, so he really wanted to do it."

The writer had earlier stated he had quite a big hand in casting for 'Good Omens'. "For American Gods, the casting is up to the showrunners. So I didn't have much say in it, although I've loved it. Good Omens was very different: I had a loud say in casting that, working closely with @drmuig and @SuzanneSmithCDG."

Gaiman also teased about his absurd yet prominent role in 'Good Omens' when a fan asked him, "Ever thought of casting yourself?" He immediately informed the fan, "I'm in Good Omens, playing a sleeping drunk and the voices of three rabbits and an animated frog." The writer had also earlier revealed that it was him in the end of 'Lucifer' Season 3 who had narrated the story as the voice of God. Gaiman was asked by the fan, "@neilhimself I tweeted this last [weekend] and I'll ask again if that was you narrating at the end of Lucifer S3?", and the writer declared, "It was, yes." Another wrote, "I hope you get to do more godly narration."

'Good Omens' is set to premiere on BBC Two May 31, this year, and it will be perhaps the most adorable battle ever fought by the angels and demons.