Over the last few months, iconic author Neil Gaiman — the man behind works like The Sandman and American Gods — has been accused of “non-consensual sex” and “sexual assault” by five women. Tortoise Media ran a story on two of them back in July. Later that month, another came forward on the Am I Broken: Survivor Stories podcast. And at the beginning of August, two more came forward on Tortoise Media's podcast.
Gaiman is an incredibly influential author who had several shows and movies based on his books and comics either in the works or already airing. Disney has now canceled a planned movie adaptation of his novel The Graveyard Book, and Amazon Prime Video has put the third and final season of Good Omens — an extension of the book of the same name Gaiman co-wrote with the late Terry Pratchett — on hold.
Good Omens, about the millennia-long relationship between an angel and demon, is in an especially tricky position. The show isn't just based on one of Gaiman's works; Gaiman is the executive producer, writer, and showrunner. So it's not a matter of saying "you have to separate the art from the artist" and continuing on with production; Gaiman is running things.
According to Deadline, Gaiman has offered to step back from the show, one assumes so production on season 3 can continue without the cloud of his scandal hanging over the show. Deadline "understands Gaiman’s offer is not an admission of wrongdoing." Amazon is said to be considering the offer.
Originally, Gaiman served as co-showrunner on Good Omens with Douglas Mackinnon, but Mackinnon himself stepped back some time ago, so if Amazon wants to move forward with the series sans Gaiman, it would likely have to find an entirely new showrunner.
Something like this has happened before. A few years back, HBO produced a sci-fi/fantasy show called The Nevers, with The Avengers director Joss Whedon serving as showrunner. Before the first season aired, revelations about Whedon's inappropriate behavior over the course of his career came to light, he left the series, and HBO replaced him as showrunner with Philippa Goslett, who oversaw production on six more episodes.
Those six episodes were released on Tubi, not HBO, and there was no promotion to speak of. The show died a very quiet, unremarked-upon death. The Nevers didn't have much of a chance to build an audience before the first batch of episodes wrapped up, and as mentioned, revelations of Whedon's inappropriate behavior came to light before a single episode had been aired. Good Omens is a bit different; the first two seasons earned it a relatively small but incredibly passionate fanbase who want to see the story of Aziraphale and Crowley brought to a satisfying conclusion.
Will they get it? We'll stay tuned.
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