Brian Cox is Death in Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

We already knew who will be playing three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the upcoming six-part television adaptation of the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. Mireille Enos is War, Yusuf Gatewood is Famine, and Lourdes Faberes is Pollution (Pestilence retired after the discovery of penicillin). That's information we've had for quite a while. But the identity of who would be play the fourth horseman, the motorcyle riding Death, has been kept under wraps. Neil Gaiman, who wrote the Good Omens TV show himself and served as showrunner, said that he hoped Death would be played by Death.

Now Gaiman has taken to his Twitter account to reveal who Death is. As it turns out, Death is apparently the alter ego of veteran actor Brian Cox.

Good Omens is described as being "equal parts humor and horror, fantasy, drama". The story begins at a time 

when the Apocalypse is near and Final Judgment is set to descend upon humanity. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

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.

In addition to Enos, Gatewood, Faberes, and Cox/Death, the show's cast includes David Tennant as Crowley; Michael Sheen as Aziraphale; Frances McDormand as the voice of God; Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of a giant animated Satan; Adria Arjona as occultist Anathema Device; Nina Sosanya as Sister Mary Loquacious of the Chattering Order of St Beryl; Ned Dennehy as Duke of Hell Hastur; Ariyon Bakare as Duke of Hell Ligur; Jack Whitehall as witch hunter Pulsifer, a.k.a. Newt; Miranda Richardson as psychic medium / courtesan Madame Tracy; Michael McKean as Sgt. Shadwell, the leader of the witch-finder army; Jon Hamm as archangel Gabriel; Anna Maxwell Martin as Beelzebub, "the ultimate demon"; Nick Offerman as "the U.S. Ambassador and father to Warlock, the child mistaken for the Antichrist"; and Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter. 

Good Omens was produced by BBC Studios, Amazon Studios, Blank Corporation, and Narrativia. Douglas Mackinnon directed all six episodes and served as executive producer on the show alongside Gaiman, Chris Sussman, Simon Winstone, and Rob Wilkins.

Through the Amazon Prime streaming service, Good Omens will be available for viewing in over 200 countries and territories as of May 31st. The show will also be airing on BBC Two in the UK.

A trailer for Good Omens was released back in October (that's the one embedded below), and Gaiman revealed that another one will be released tomorrow.
 

So for anybody wondering… The amazing Brian Cox plays Death in #GoodOmens. This is what Death looks like, when he's not on a motorbike anyway. (Watch the trailer tomorrow.) pic.twitter.com/ARmFMM97uc

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 5, 2019