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Neil Gaiman‘s ‘Good Omens‘ has expanded the cast with a last minute announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch (‘Avengers: Infinity War’,’Star Trek Into Darkness’) will be portraying The Devil for the series. Satan wasn’t a major player in the actual novels and it looks as if Cumberbatch is only set to be in the sixth episode of this limited series. He’ll be acting across Frances McDormand who will be playing God.

This news came from Neil Gaiman at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. He was sitting on a panel for the show with stars Michael Sheen and David Tennant as well as executive producer and director Douglas Mackinnon. According to Gaiman:

“In episode 6 there is the appearance of Satan. Frances McDormand is playing God in this. We suddenly realize we have Satan turning up in episode 6 so we needed somebody who could give Frances McDormand a run for her money.”

Don’t expect Cumberbatch to be visible at all in the show though as he’ll be doing voicework as he did for Smaug in “The Hobbit” films. According to Mackinnon, “It’s a giant animated Satan.” Gaiman fleshed out the description of what Cumberbatch’s character would look like by stating that, “It’s 400 foot high. He turns up, and we actually needed a performance that would work. We found a young British actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. It is the glorious young Benedict Cumberbatch is our Satan.”

While Cumberbatch did his voice work in the studio, the animators also filmed him so that his performance could work its way into the animation. Not quite the motion-capture which he did for Smaug but I’m thrilled that they’ll be trying to incorporate his mannerisms into the character.

It isn’t clear if the latest teaser of the opening sequence is a hint at the animation style which we’ll see for the episode that Cumberbatch is in:

 

Are you thrilled to hear Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Satan in ‘Good Omens’? Would you have thought to choose another actor for the part? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Slashfilm