How Neil Gaiman Created Totally New Good Omens Characters For Returning Stars In Season 2

Good Omens returns to Prime Video for Season 2 on July 28 in the 2023 TV schedule with plenty of familiar faces, of course including David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale. There are a few returning cast members who will be playing completely new characters, however, who were neither in the first season nor the book co-written by Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett. Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service have new roles for Season 2, and the actresses spoke with CinemaBlend prior to the SAG strike about how Gaiman created their characters.

Nina Sosanya, Maggie Service, and Miranda Richardson all returned to Good Omens for the second batch of episodes without reprising their roles from Season 1. Sosanya and Service both played Chattering Nuns in the first season, with Service's Sister Theresa Garrulous dead by the end and Sosanya's Sister Mary Loquacious moving on to less Satanic exploits. Their new characters – fittingly named Maggie and Nina – certainly aren't nuns. When I spoke with the returning actresses about playing different roles in the same show, I asked what kind of conversations they had with Neil Gaiman about the change, and they shared:

• Nina Sosanya: "Well, I mean, one of the things that he was sort of trying to tell us was that even though these characters were named after us, they were not us, but he was trying to sort of draw a little bit on sort of what we are, but not what we are. [laughs] He was trying to explain the sort of line that he was walking."

• Maggie Service: "I mean, I just said, 'Neil Gaiman's had an idea and he's a really clever man. Yes, please, that's great.’"

• Nina Sosanya: "Just do it, and then we'll turn up."

Neil Gaiman not only co-wrote the Good Omens novel (and has been open about missing Terry Pratchett as his co-author during the adaptation process), but he is also a co-showrunner, executive producer, and script writer on the series. In fact, his script book revealed that one element of Season 2 was originally meant for Season 1! According to Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service, they were on board for whatever Gaiman had in mind, and he had a "line" that he was walking to create the Nina and Maggie characters. The actresses continued:

• Maggie Service: "Because, I mean, you utterly trust him, and you trust the story, and you trust the universe. Literally, trust the universe."

• Nina Sosanya: "I mean, he clearly had a very distinctive idea. We weren't privy to that beforehand. We just... We were in."

While Good Omens fans will to have to wait until July 28 to get a good look at coffee shop owner Nina and record shop owner Maggie in action, it seems safe to say that we'll see more of them than we saw of Sister Theresa Garrulous and Sister Mary Loquacious, and more of them interacting with other main cast members. It just remains to be seen how they'll connect to Crowley and Aziraphale, who – according to David Tennant and Michael Sheen in an interview with CinemaBlend – got "everything" they wanted after Season 1. The Easter egg-filled opening sequence can only give away so much about what's in store!

Maggie and Nina also aren't the only new characters coming to Good Omens Season 2 played by a returning star. Miranda Richardson, who played Madame Tracy in Season 1, returns as a demon by the name of Shax. Newcomers to the cast include Quelin Sepulveda as the angel Muriel, Liz Carr as the angel Saraqael, and Shelley Conn as Beelzebub after original actress Anna Maxwell Martin had to be recast due to scheduling conflicts. Jon Hamm will be back as Gabriel as well as Doon Mackichan and Gloria Obianyo as Michael and Uriel, respectively.

Meet Nina Sosanya's Nina and Maggie Service's Maggie when Good Omens returns to Prime Video on Friday, July 28. All six episodes of Season 2 will drop on the same day, so be prepared to either binge-watch or dodge spoilers that weekend!