Things may be settling down behind the scenes of Starz’ ‘American Gods’. Former ‘Hannibal’ executive producer Jesse Alexander has been named showrunner and will be working closely with author Neil Gaiman, who is busy serving as showrunner for his series ‘Good Omens’. Gaiman expressed:
“I’m thrilled that Jesse is [the] showrunner. He loves and understands the book, he loves and understands the TV series and he’s dedicated to making future seasons of American Gods as good and as beautiful and as unique as they can be. Shadow’s journey is going to take him, and Mr. Wednesday, and the New Gods and the Old, to some very strange places. I’m glad that we, and the cast and crew, will have Jesse shepherding us on the way.”
Gaiman also denied claims that the previous showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed after clashing over the show’s direction and budget. Alexander worked with Fuller on ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘Heroes’ as well as ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost’.
Supposedly, Gaiman felt Season One of ‘American Gods’ deviated too far from his novel. (The final episode was completely original.) Fuller and Green reportedly completed six scripts for Season Two but now it sounds as though Alexander will retool them in order to bring the show more in line with Gaiman’s vision. Also reportedly, the first season ran over budget by $30 million. Starz supposedly capped season two with $9 million per episode.
According to Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, Fuller and Green will still be involved with ‘American Gods’ in some capacity, but many are speculating that they will simply retain a production credit without actually having any input.
‘American Gods’ was expected to return to Starz in January 2019, but with all the shuffling behind the scenes, it’s unclear if that will happen. In addition to the delays in production, Gillian Anderson announced that she would not be returning to play Media and Kristin Chenoweth has expressed uncertainty about returning as Easter.
We’ll keep you posted with any updates.
Source: Bleeding Cool
