Gillian Anderson has already expressed that the current eleventh season of ‘The X-Files’ will be her last. (Considering that ratings for the first episode were considerably lower than those of last year’s revival, the show may not be back again, anyway.) Now she’s dropped another bombshell– she’s leaving her other hit sci-fi series, Starz’ ‘American Gods’. Though there was no direct quote, while discussing the new season of ‘The X-Files’ with the ‘Los Angeles Times’, Anderson admitted that she was exiting ‘American Gods’ because of the departure of the program’s creators/showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.
Fuller and Green reportedly walked away after financial and creative disputes with production company FremantleMedia in November. In December, fellow cast member Kristin Chenoweth, who had signed on after having worked with Fuller on the series ‘Pushing Daisies’, also expressed uncertainty about returning.
Anderson won raves for her performance as Media, one of the new gods. As what was essentially the god of pop culture, she never appeared the same way twice, with Anderson embodying such famous figures as Lucy Ricardo from ‘I Love Lucy’ (Lucille Ball), “The Girl” from ‘The Seven Year Itch’ (Marilyn Monroe), Hannah Brown from ‘Easter Parade’ (Judy Garland) and most strikingly Ziggy Stardust, the glam alter ego of rock star David Bowie.
Whoever is cast to take over for Anderson has a lot of work cut out for them.
‘American Gods’ Season Two’s fate is unclear. A new showrunner has not been announced. The first season premiered last April and after excellent reviews and ratings, was quickly renewed. Reportedly, half the scripts for Season Two were already complete when Fuller and Green left.
But now with Anderson’s departure, who knows when season two will ever arrive… or of it will at all.
Stay tuned for updates as they emerge!
