SPOILERS ARE AHEAD for Season 2 of Good Omens on Prime Video.
After four years of waiting, Good Omens fans with Prime Video subscriptions can finally watch the second season of the series based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett. Season 2 expanded beyond the events of the book, but with Gaiman on board as a writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner, the new story and new characters felt entirely true to the first season. One of the new characters was the angel Saraqael, played by actress and disability activist Liz Carr, who spoke with CinemaBlend prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike about how the show handled accessibility during Disability Pride Month.
Liz Carr is a wheelchair user due to arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, and has been involved in activism for disability rights for more than 25 years, according to her website, which has involved everything from appearing on news programs to being handcuffed to buses to campaign for secure accessible public transportation. The angel Saraqael also uses a wheelchair, and with Good Omens returning in the month of July – a.k.a. Disability Pride Month – I seized the opportunity at the Season 2 press junket to ask Carr about what it means to her to debut her new character in an incredibly popular show, and she shared:
Well, I only recently learned, which really excited me, is that the character was not written as a disabled character. They wanted a grumpy, I'd like to think of as sarcastic, angel. I'd worked with the director before and he remembered me. So I was cast really, for my sarcasm, which is an honor. But you know, obviously, I'm a wheelchair user, a disabled woman, and so then Neil ran with that. I had a call with him, and this is how it went. He went, 'Right, so Liz, when you're in heaven, the chair will float.' 'Okay.' 'And then when you're in the real world, you'll be able to perform miracles to make inaccessible things accessible.'
Saraqael joined Michael and Uriel on a couple of trips to Aziraphale's bookshop (which he semi-shared with Crowley for Season 2), and that involved quite literally performing some miracles to make the store accessible. Liz Carr shared that she was cast for her humor and acting abilities rather than because the new Season 2 angel was written to be disabled. The actress went on to share her reaction to the reveal from Neil Gaiman about how the show would handle accessibility, saying:
Well, I squealed. How can you not? I mean, it says so much in such a tiny way, but a brilliantly imaginative and visual way. It was everything. It's why I took the role, and that it goes out this month is really important to me. Already on Twitter, there's been fans going, 'It's great that there's a wheelchair user.' I mean, in the posters, I'm really prominent. We never see that, [we] really don't. I'm very, very proud of the production for doing that and honored to be the person that's in the chair, that's the disabled person.
Considering that one of my biggest laughs of Season 2 came in the finale when Saraqael was only too ready to turn a pair of mortals into pillars of salt, I for one am very glad that Liz Carr was the one bringing the angel to life in Season 2! Good Omens fans on Twitter were quite vocal for the promotional material, including becoming fast fans of Quelin Sepulveda's Muriel (who was not prepared for Crowley and Aziraphale) after her appearance in the Season 2 trailer.
Season 2 of Good Omens also ended in a way that didn't rule out a return from Saraqael, if the show is renewed for a third season despite the complications of the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA strike. Aziraphale may be the one in charge as of the end of the second season finale, but Gabriel was the only angel to make an official exit when he left for Alpha Centauri with Beelzebub (Bridgerton's Shelley Conn in full Lord of the Flies mode), which could mean that fans have seen the last of Jon Hamm as the former Supreme Archangel.
Hopefully the show will get the Season 3 renewal and bring back Liz Carr as Saraqael! I still want to see Saraqael turn somebody into a pillar of salt, although ideally somebody more deserving than the lovely Maggie and Nina. For now, you can find the full first and second seasons of Good Omens streaming on Amazon Prime Video, as well as some additional options in our 2023 TV schedule.
