A Christian group calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, a television adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel, has admitted to an “oversight” in directing its petition at Netflix when the series is actually made by Amazon Prime.
The Return to Order campaign, an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilization, initially directed its ire at Netflix, calling for the site to “stop promoting evil” and “pull this series at once”.
The petition was updated on Thursday to reflect the “oversight by Return to Order staff” and acknowledge that the “offensive” series had, in fact, been released by Amazon. “We regret the mistake, and the protests will be delivered to Amazon when the campaign is complete,” said organisers.
The correction did not come in time to prevent both Netflix and Amazon from getting in on the fun. “Ok we promise not to make any more,” tweeted Netflix yesterday. “Hey @netflix, we’ll cancel Stranger Things if you cancel Good Omens,” tweeted Amazon Prime.
More than 20,000 people have put their name to the petition condemning the BBC/Amazon co-production. Starring David Tennant as the devil Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale as they try to prevent the apocalypse, the show, according to the petition, “presents devils and Satanists as normal and even good”, “mocks God’s wisdom”, and is “another step to make Satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”.
Gaiman remains unbothered. “You can’t actually make this stuff up ... Bless,” he wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.