Good Omens has arrived on Amazon Prime Video and, unfortunately for viewers, that means the end of the world is mere days away.
Thankfully, Express.co.uk had the chance to exclusively catch up with legendary author and storyteller Neil Gaiman about the brand new rendition of the classic story he wrote with fellow novelist Terry Pratchett.
Neil has had a large number of his stories and novels adapted into various films and TV shows in the past decade or so.
Most recently, Amazon Prime Video’s American Gods saw its second season – to much critical acclaim.
GOOD OMENS REVIEW
But as his books are so detailed and well thought-out, it makes sense that he would have to leave certain things out of his incredible stories.
Sat beside Terry Pratchett’s best friend, Rob Wilkins, Neil explained: “The only thing that we had to leave out was a line that we put in at the time because it was all ‘Glasnost-y’.
“In which we said how ‘unlikely it was that international tensions were increasing considering how well everybody was getting along.’”
Witch a smirk, he added: “That line we got to leave out!”
As the showrunner of the production, Neil had final say on everything in Good Omens.
However he carefully admitted how he was open to admitting when he got things wrong from time-to-time – especially when it didn’t work for the show.
In fact, Neil explained how the first draft of the show’s script included 15 minutes of content before the pivotal graveyard scene.
“We shot it all, and we put it together,” he said. “And we showed it to people and they got very confused in episode one, because they weren’t sure when the story started!
“Eventually we said: ‘What if we do it like it was in the book?’ All of a sudden the thing made sense!”
Other than that cut line, and removed footage, Neil gushed over how fitting Good Omens feels in today’s political climate.
He confessed: “It feels right now much more apt, much more appropriate, much more current than when we wrote it.”
Good Omens was published in 1990 by Gollancz, and was obviously borne during a much different state of the world.
“None of the issues that powered Good Omens have gone away – none of it has gotten better… it just got a little bit worse.”
“And, as such,” he continued. “Making Good Omens into a six part movie… you watch it and it doesn’t feel dated. It actually feels ridiculously current.”
As Good Omens focusses mainly on the oncoming apocalypse, viewers will most likely be hoping reality doesn’t exactly mirror the show in the coming weeks.
Good Omens is available on Amazon Prime Video.