Get a good look at David Tennant and Michael Sheen in Good Omens

It’s a match made in heaven — or is that hell?

Almost three decades after Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett published their novel Good Omens, the story is coming to the small screen with Michael Sheen and David Tennant. Sheen plays Aziraphale, a fussy angel who runs a bookshop. Tennant’s Crowley is a suave devil who likes to terrorize houseplants. Together, they form the cosmos’ oddest couple, an angel and a demon who’ve been stationed on Earth since the Garden of Eden.

“They really annoy each other,” Sheen says with a laugh. “But they do really enjoy each other.”

“And they enjoy being appalled by each other,” Tennant adds. “Yet throughout the eons, they’ve been saving each other’s bacon, repeatedly.”

Good Omens doesn’t launch until 2019 on Amazon, but with the show coming to New York Comic Con this weekend for a panel, EW has the first exclusive stills introducing Aziraphale and Crowley in all their 21st-century glory. The renegade angel and demon have so enjoyed their centuries on Earth that when their bosses upstairs and below decide to kick-start the apocalypse, they team up to save their adopted home.

“Nobody else knows what it’s like to be a supernatural being on Earth amongst humans, so that bonds them in a special way,” Sheen says.

It’s a tale that’s alternatingly silly and solemn, and it’s taken years to get here: There have been attempts to adapt Good Omens as a film, but after Pratchett’s death in 2015, Gaiman took matters into his own hands, writing the miniseries himself.

“It’s such a unique world that he and Terry have created,” Tennant says. “If anyone else had taken it on, I don’t think we could have captured the real quirky essence of it.”

Add in guest stars like Jon Hamm as the archangel Gabriel and Frances McDormand as the voice of God, and you’ve got an apocalyptic comedy that’s positively, well, divine.

“There’s something wonderful about playing a supernatural character,” Tennant says. “You’re freed from some of the restraints of some of the psychological straight lines that you might have to apply to a human being. Although at the same time, Aziraphale and Crowley are very human.”

“They both started off as angels, but one of them went a slightly different way,” Sheen adds. “So I think it’s interesting that the longer they’ve spent together and the longer they’ve spent on Earth, they’ve sort of knocked the edges off and become a little more like each other than they might have been.”

Related content:

• Neil Gaiman explains how he’s bringing Good Omens from page to screen
• Neil Gaiman teases David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s ‘magic’ chemistry in Good Omens