Were the four lesser horsemen of the apocalypse ever in the plans for the tv show or were they cut early on in the process?

dubiousculturalartifact:

neil-gaiman:

They were in the script. They were even cast. (There were some fantastic auditions.) But when we were a few days before the read through we needed to save a week’s shooting, and the Other Four Horsemen would have been long and arduous and expensive to shoot and, reluctantly, I let them go.

Honestly I was very disappointed by the lack of the four lesser horsemen of the apocalypse but this situation¹ makes for too perfectly Good Omens-y of a joke, for me to truly be angry about it.

¹ there were originally eight Horsemen, but the other four were unfortunately cut, due to budgetary issues