Amazon Studios Announces Apocalyptic Comedy Miniseries Adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens

In past decade, we have seen a lot of apocalyptic literature, film and television, from zombie takeovers to deadly viruses to world wars to end all wars—not a whole lot of laughs in the bunch. However, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved 1990 novel Good Omens stands apart as a beacon of apocalyptic comedy. Today, Amazon Studios announced that the novel will be turned into a six-part limited series, set to debut worldwide in 2018.

The show is written entirely by Gaiman, who also authored Coraline and American Gods, which is set to be a television series later this year. The Good Omens miniseries will be available on Amazon Prime Video, and will show on BBC in the U.K. following its Amazon premiere. Good Omens takes place in 2018 on the eve of the apocalypse, and chronicles the end of the world in all its absurdities. A press release describes the whole end-of-the-world process:

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, and tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming war. And … someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

Following the novel’s release, Good Omens became many people’s favorite book, and was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and the World Fantasy Award. Gaiman said, “Almost thirty years ago, Terry Pratchett and I wrote the funniest novel we could about the end of the world, populated with angels and demons, not to mention an eleven-year old Antichrist, witchfinders and the four horsepeople of the Apocalypse.” Gaiman also said he was happy to be producing the series with BBC Studios, and wished that Pratchett, who died in March of 2015, would have lived to see its creation. In such a time of uncertainty, when the end of the world seems closer than ever, perhaps a comedic apocalyptic series is just what we need.