Good Omens Casts Its Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Beelzebub

Amazon’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved apocalyptic novel Good Omens has cast Anna Maxwell Martin as big bad Beelzebub, with Mireille Enos, Lourdes Faberes and Yusuf Gatewood joining Martin as three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Enos, Faberes and Gatewood will play the roles of War, Pollution and Famine, respectively—regarding the fourth Horseman, Gaiman, who is also writing the television series, joked in a press release from Amazon and BBC Two, “We are hoping that Death will be played by…DEATH.” With the casting of Martin, Gaiman calls Martin “the Beelzebub of our dreams. Well, nightmares.”

Related: Jon Hamm Playing Archangel In Good Omens

The original novel focused on the angel Aziraphale (played by Martin Sheen in the forthcoming series) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant), grounded on Earth, near the End Times. The pair gain an affinity and comfort for their Earth home, and end up delaying the apocalypse by “misplacing” the Anti-Christ—you can bet that hijinks ensue afterwards. The Four Horsemen carry their own subplot in the original novel, and have their own quirky and ironic traits. War is a war correspondent, Famine is a dietician and Pollution is a replacement for Pestilence, who retired after the discovery of penicillin.

The casting of Filipino actress Faberes is a noticeable gender-bending of Pollution, who in the original book was a sickly man with white skin. And while the characters in the novel referred to Martin’s character Beelzebub as “he,” the text itself used the pronoun “it” to emphasize the sexless nature of angels and demons. Faberes and Gatewood add some diversity to the cast, which Gaiman may hope will quell fans disappointed by the casting of Sheen and Tennant—while the two are celebrated actors, the races of their characters were never specified in the book, and may not fit some readers’ images of Aziraphale and Crowley. Gaiman addressed fans’ concerns in a Tumblr post shortly after the casting news.

In addition to Sheen, Tennant and the newly-announced cast members, Jon Hamm will portray the Archangel Gabriel, messenger of God. Other cast members include Jack Whitehall, Michael McKean, Miranda Richardson, Adria Arjona, Nina Sosanya, Ned Dennehy and Ariyon Bakare.

The series will be in six parts, all written by Gaiman. Good Omens will stream on Amazon Prime Video in 2019, and will air on BBC Two in the United Kingdom soon afterwards.

MORE: First Look At Michael Sheen & David Tenant In Good Omens Costumes

Source: Amazon and BBC Two