Please welcome Death, in the form of Brian Cox's voice
The scene is set: You’re breathing your last, the world is going dark…this is truly the end. And then, from the supernatural recesses of the infinite void, you’re greeted in the afterlife by…the voice of Captain O’Hagan from Super Troopers. “That’s about right,” you figure.
Actually, the stentorian tones of Brian Cox sound like a pretty good fit for the character of Death. Deadline reports the actor has signed on to voice Death, a.k.a. Azrael, in the Amazon Prime adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, an end-of-the-world comedy-drama involving the apocalypse, a missing antichrist, and a frustrated team-up of an angel and demon. The character is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (sort of their leader, as the horseman War notes that Death was “never exactly one of the lads”), who nonetheless also happens to be extremely fond of playing Trivial Pursuit. The CGI creation to whom Cox is lending his warbly baritone still looks quite a lot like the traditional Grim Reaper, however, as can be seen in the image Neil Gaiman shared online when announcing Cox’s addition to the cast:
This makes an already impressive lineup of acting heavy hitters even more impressive, with Cox joining Frances McDormand as God, Benedict Cumberbatch as the Devil, and a parade of others including Jon Hamm, Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Miranda Richardson, Mireille Enos, Nick Offerman, and more. Good Omens premieres May 31 on Amazon Prime.