For the time being, FOX’s ‘Lucifer’ is over. Last night, the network aired two “bonus episodes” which were intended to be included in the show’s fourth season, but since there won’t be a fourth season (at least not at FOX), these two installments were broadcast as a thank you to loyal fans. For fans that tuned in, there was a surprise cameo, Neil Gaiman, the creator of the ‘Lucifer’ comic book, was brought in to voice God.
The show’s creator Joe Henderson enthusiastically recalled how this came together:
“Oh my God, it was awesome! First of all, I am a huge Neil Gaiman nerd. I grew up on Sandman, I cut my teeth on Sandman. So I have had the luck, because of the show, to e-mail with him once or twice a year. The whole idea for this ‘Once Upon a Time’ in the pitch which I brought to the room, I ended it with, “And by the way, the narrator we’ve been listening to the entire time is Neil Gaiman.” That was the pitch. And everyone’s like, ‘Oh, that would be cool, that would be fun.’ And then we finally got to the episode, we finally broke it, and it was still that. So I just emailed Neil, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t even know if this is anything you’re interested in, but we’ve read this episode, it’s narrated by God. I love your audiobooks,’ — which is true, that’s how I read all of his books — ‘And you’re the voice that’s been in my head while we’ve been writing it. Would you be interested?’ And his reply, I’m gonna butcher it, but in typical Neil Gaiman fashion it was basically, ‘I don’t have the time at all. Let’s figure out a way to do it anyways.’…And I got to direct Neil Gaiman doing voiceover. And mostly that was me just saying, ‘That sounds awesome.'”
Henderson acknowledges that the idea of using ‘Lucifer”s actual creator as God was inspired by an issue of ‘Fantastic Four’ in which Jack Kirby appeared as God.
“I love that Waid/Wieringo run; it was fantastic. That was part of my pitch to him. I was like, ‘Listen, you are literally Lucifer’s creator. I can’t think of a better way to bring our story full circle within that episode, and also within what we’ve been creating.’ Whenever you get to the question of who God is, going meta [is a good idea]. I love that issue where it was like, ‘Of course it’s Kirby. Of course.’ But what a cool way to honor the people who have created something, but also to give the audience a nice little nudge.”
Speaking of that audience, ‘Lucifer’ fans have been campaigning hard to get another outlet to pick the show up. Star Tom Ellis appeared at CMC London Comic Con this weekend and while he couldn’t go into details, he confirmed that “talks” were taking place and thanked the fans for making that happen. Henderson also admitted that negotiations were underway but couldn’t disclose details. But he also credited the viewers of the series for making that happen.
“Memorial Day night is definitely not gonna bring gang buster numbers, we know that. But if it brings surprisingly stubborn numbers, even that speaks to the value of the show. And honestly, the #SaveLucifer campaign. One million Tweets in 24 hours — that is bananas. The number of people who have e-mailed me and noticed, who I didn’t even know were on Twitter or weren’t on Twitter and just heard about it, is mind-blowing. I have never seen anything…I genuinely didn’t expect it. And not in the, ‘I didn’t know people like our show that much.’ I do. I just guess it’s a little bit of humility mixed with a little bit of not realizing just how many people we’d touched. And it’s been incredible.”
Did you catch the Gaiman cameo in the ‘Once Upon A Time’ episode? What did you think? Check back for ‘Lucifer’ updates as they surface!
Source: ComicBook.com
