Next year Starz will begin airing their adaptation of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, SFX Magazine, and Bram Stoker award winning, bestselling novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The series is developed by Brian Fuller and Micheal Green, and the Executive Producers are Fuller, Green, Gaiman, Craig Cegielski, Stefanie Berk, and Tom Beers. Description When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it. Cast: Ricky Whittle (The 100) as Shadow Moon Ian McShane (Deadwood) as Mr. Wednesday Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Laura Moon Yetide Badaki as Bilquis Bruce Langley as Technical Boy Johnathan Tucker (Kingdom) as Low Key Lyesmith Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black) as Mad Sweeney Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as Mr. World Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein) as Zorya Vechernyaya Peter Stormare (Prison Break) as Czernobog Chris Obi as Mr. Jaquel Mousa Kraish (Fast and Furious) as The Jinn Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as Media Omit Abtahi (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2) as Salim Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) as Mr. Nansy Demore Barnes (The Unit) as Mr. Ibis Dane Cook (Planes) as Robbie (I tried to pick the biggest TV show or movie the cast members were in off of their Wikipedia pages, so if anyone thinks I should change one just let me know) Trailer I'm seriously thinking I need to give the book another try. I know I'm starting this thread, but I don't get Starz so I won't be able to watch the show unless I get the episodes of Amazon or somewhere like that. I was mainly starting this because there wasn't a current thread, and I thought you guys would want to see the trailer.
I love the book, it is one of my favourite novels. I am so looking forward to this series. The trailer looks great.
Does anyone know who the showrunner is going to be? I thought at one point it was supposed to be Brian Fuller, but I wasn't sure if that was actually the case since he's also working on the new Star Trek series. EDIT: Kristen Chenowith (Pushing Daisies) has joined the cast as Easter. The article also says that Brian Fuller and Michael Green are co-showrunners, so apparently Full will co-showrunner for this and showrunner for ST at the same time.
It does seem that the Lakeside portion of American Gods is being excluded from the TV series as IMDB does not mention the characters of Hinzelman, Samantha Black Crow nor her sister, or Chad Mulligan. And the character of Robbie is mentioned as being in all 10 episodes. He is an extremely mnor character in the novel.
From what I've read about the show, specifically from Gaiman himself, is the they're doing a slow adaptation and the first season only covers about a third of the book. I really need to read the book again before the show starts. It's been years and I barely remember any of the details and only a few of the characters.
Conversely, I think I'll not reread the book, and let myself experience the series as its own entity.
From what I recall, (having read the book about 18 months back) the overall story in the book felt fairly leisurely paced, with the main character stopping in certain places for extended down-time (on the order of months) so a slower paced adaptation would make sense.
Perhaps you're right. That's I usually do for films/books I haven't seen/read, such as 12 Years a Slave, Coraline, Cloud Atlas, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. With those last three, I deliberately waited a couple of years to read the books after I watched their respective films and I haven't read 12 Years a Slave yet but I got the book right after I saw the film (I literally walked to the bookstore afterwards). But with this, I feel bad that I can't remember anything about the book except that absolute basics.
I hope that in the second season they will cover the Lakeside part of the story. I doubt they will ever deal with the stories of the people who brought the Gods with them to America.
Here's the Neil Gaiman interview I was referring to. Spoiler: Excerpt of the interview which reveals where season 1 will end
I just found a bunch of new AG videos on their youtube page. Bryan Fuller Fills in some blanks (this one is fun but isn't very informative) Bryan Fuller on Neil Gaiman's Bestseller Drama for the Trump Era Neil Gaiman & Micheal Greeen - American Gods in Under 60 Seconds
I'm really looking forward to this as well. My husband recently bought the "Author's Preferred Text" of both this and Neverwhere for me. I finished Neverwhere and loved it. I was debating whether to read AG before the series, but now that I know that the series is a "leisurely adaptation" that does not cover the whole book I have decided to watch the series first. I can't wait! (also, Ian McShane is a bonus to ANY show!)
The only TV show I am excited about this year. Looks glorious. The colour palate is remarkable. Like Spartacus blended with Hannibal and The Fall I have no idea how big Starz actually is in the States, but if this was on HBO it would be the watercooler show of the year. Perhaps the Amazon distribution model will broaden its exposure. Hugo - Every hour wounds. The last one kills.