Orlando Jones
Starz

Welp.  The last reason to watch ‘American Gods’ is no more.  Orlando Jones portrayed Mr. Nancy, an old god originally known as the trickster spider Anansi, from African folklore, originating in Ghana.  Jones announced that he had been fired on September 10th by the program’s new showrunner Charles Eglee who felt that Mr. Nancy didn’t deliver the right message for black America.

Jones released a fiery video message on Twitter which was worthy of Mr. Nancy himself, in which he didn’t call out Eglee by name but bluntly referred to ‘American Gods” new showrunner as the one who made the decision to fire him.  He made sure to thank Neil Gaiman, who wrote the original novel, and Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, who created the show.

You can watch Jones’ brutal video below:

As he stated:

“There will be no more Mr. Nancy. Don’t let these motherf–ers tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don’t.  I’m not going to name names but the new season 3 showrunner [Eglee] is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he’s very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy’s angry, get sh– done is the wrong message for black America. That’s right. This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I’m sure he has many black bffs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god Mr. Nancy he’d start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?”

Jones followed that with another message:

‘American Gods’ is produced by Fremantle, and this situation arrives just weeks after a controversy surrounding the termination of African American judge Gabrielle Union from the competition show ‘America’s Got Talent’.  Union reported a toxic work environment and says that she was told not to wear her hair certain ways because it was “too black.”

Jones tagged Union, along with other former ‘America’s Got Talent’ judges Mel B. and Heidi Klum, and former host Nick Cannon.

Union responded, “let’s chat my friend.”  It sounds like this controversy isn’t going to just go away.

‘American Gods’ has been plagued by issues behind the scenes, with Fuller and Green being fired after Season 1.  Jesse Alexander served as showrunner after them, but according to insiders, he was “sidelined” and had no real say in the show’s direction.  He was reportedly locked out of the writing and editing rooms.  It was during that time, that Jones was promoted to writer and producer.  Alexander was replaced by Eglee.  In addition to the behind-the-scenes turnovers, there have been many shakeups involving the cast, including the departures of Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth, two of Season 1’s standout performers.

Mr. Nancy was a powerful orator and used his influence to stir up revolution, particularly among black people.  When he was first introduced on the series, he convinced a ship-load of slaves to rise up and kill their captors, even though to do so would lead to their deaths.  His presence allowed the writers to address racial inequality in modern society.

Season 2 seemed to feature the death of Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber).  Personally, if both Mad Sweeney and Mr. Nancy are gone, I don’t see the point in watching anymore, but that’s just me.  Actually, no it’s not.  Here is a message from another fan who feels the same:

Season 3 was already in production, so it’s unclear if Jones will appear in some capacity.  New episodes should arrive in 2020.

 

Source: Entertainment Weekly