STARZ’s ‘American Gods’ based on the bestselling Neil Gaiman novel is one of the most anticipated new shows arriving next year and the crew behind it arrived at SDCC with the first trailer.
The show stars Ricky Whittle as ex-con Shadow Moon who becomes the hired muscle for Mr. Wednesday played by Ian McShane who is secretly one of the old gods of myth. The pair embark on a cross country trek during which Mr. Wednesday is seeking to rally his former allies against a rising pantheon of American gods who draw power from Americans’ obsessions with things like technology, money, fame and drugs.
The producers announced that Kristen Chenoweth (‘Glee’, ‘Pushing Daisies’) had joined the series as Easter, one of Wednesday’s old god allies, the Germanic goddess of the dawn. She joins a cast that also includes Gillian Anderson, Cloris Leachman, Yetide Badaki, Emily Browning, Dane Cook, Bruce Langley, Pablo Schreiber, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Tucker.
Gaiman was in attendance and shared a link between ‘American Gods’ and Comic Con:
“I’ve been coming to San Diego Comic-Con for a very long time. [In 1999], I came by train and on the train to San Diego which was a three-day train journey from Chicago, I wrote the first chapter of American Gods.”
For those that read the novel, he teased that there would be some “surprises”:
“We have things that will leave you puzzled.”
Check out your first look at this new series below:
In today’s volatile political climate, Gaiman’s novel may be even more pertinent today than when it was published in 2001.
Executive producer Bryan Fuller stated:
“I look at what’s happening in the country today and we have a vice presidential nominee who thinks that gay people should be shocked. Its really scary because there is an absence of love and an absence of tolerance. … There is so much hate and we’re in trouble as a country.”
Are you intrigued by this new series?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
