After the success of its second season, a third outing for the live-action adaptation of Good Omens seemed inevitable – and sure enough, despite the sudden exit of co-showrunner Douglas Mackinnon two months prior, December 2023 saw the series receive the third season greenlight from Amazon.
However, a behind-the-scenes shake-up has now reduced the long-awaited final season to a single, 90-minute long episode.
In announcing the series’ renewal, Amazon MGM Studio’s head of Television, Vernon Sanders, expressed nothing but confidence in both the project’s future and Gaiman’s seat on its production team, declaring, “Good Omens has checked every box for a clever, witty, and funny comedy that not only made it a success on Prime Video but also made ‘goodness’ watchable and fun thanks to Neil and [original series late co-creator Sir Terry Gilliam]’s immense creativity.”
“The final season is sure to be packed with the same dynamic energy that our global customers have come to enjoy,” he added.
Originally launched as a limited series, Good Omens was extended thanks not only to its success, but also because Gaiman had an idea for its continuation, with the writer telling the media, “I’m so happy finally to be able to finish the story Terry and I plotted in 1989 and in 2006. Terry was determined that if we made Good Omens for television, we could take the story all the way to the end.”
With the show’s second season ending on a sad note as its two main characters, Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant), parted ways, the budding romance between them and the fate of the world at stake, fans had a lot to expect in the final season.
“Season One was all about averting Armageddon, dangerous prophecies, and the End of the World,” detailed. Gaiman. “Season Two was sweet and gentle, although it may have ended less joyfully than a certain Angel and Demon might have hoped. Now, in Season Three, we will deal once more with the end of the world. The plans for Armageddon are going wrong. Only Crowley and Aziraphale working together can hope to put it right. And they aren’t talking.”
And then came July 2024, when the Tortoise Media podcast broke the story that Gaiman was facing sexual assault allegations from two separate women.
The first woman, a fan of Gaiman’s writing identified only as K claimed that in the early-2000s, when she was aged just 20 and Gaiman was in his mid-40s, she was subject to a variety of painful sexual acts which “she neither wanted nor enjoyed”.
The second woman, known only as Scarlet, accused Gaiman of assaulting her in a bathtub at his New Zealand residence, with the assault apparently happening shortly after they met in February 2022 when she worked at his house as a nanny.
Notably, Scarlet’s claims against Gaiman are currently being investigated by New Zealand authorities.
Since then, four more women have come out with their own allegations against The Sandman creator.
For his part, Gaiman has denied every and all of the accusations against him, in doing so asserting that “K’s allegations are motivated by her regret over their relationship,” and claiming that Scarlet was “suffering from a condition associated with false memories at the time of her relationship with him.”
Nonetheless, as first reported by Deadline, in September 2024, Gaiman chose to step back from the show.
To this end, while the series was originally set to continue on with its original production plans following Gaiman’s exit, a new report from Variety has revealed that rather than a full third season, Good Omens will instead come to a close with a single, 90-minute episode.
Per Amazon, while this episode will feature writing contributions by Gaiman, he will not be working on the show when it returns to set. Further, his name will no longer be featured in the show’s credited list of executive producers.
The television movie will begin filming in Scotland in 2025 without the contribution of Gaiman’s production company. Instead, in addition to the estate of his Good Omens co-writer, Terry Pratchett, as represented by Rob Wilkins, BBC Studios Productions Head of Comedy Josh Cole will serve as the final episode’s executive producer.
Good Omens is just one of the many projects that have suffered as a consequence of the allegations against Gaiman. In September, Disney pre-production of a film based on Gaiman’s Graveyard Book was halted by Disney.
And given that the second season of Netflix’s The Sandman and the first season of Amazon’s Anansi Boys are currently in pre-productio, there’s also a chance that these series could undergo some major production changes as well.
At current, the final episode of Good Omens has yet to receive an official premiere date.