First Photo: ‘American Gods’ Bilquis Played by Yetide Badaki

American Gods Yetide Badaki as Bilquis
Yetide Badaki as Bilquis in Starz’ ‘American Gods.’

Starz is bringing the cast and executive producers from American Gods to the 2016 San Diego Comic Con to premiere new footage and to discuss the new series with Con attendees. Today, just days prior to the American Gods panel on July 22nd, Starz has released the first official photo of actress Yetide Badaki (Aquarius) in character as Bilquis. Bilquis is described as the ancient goddess of love “who craves the worship she inspired in eras long gone, and is eager to find that same relevance in today’s world.”


The series is based on the bestselling novel by Neil Gaiman who serves as an executive producer on the series. Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Heroes, The River) are the writers and showrunners, and they’ll also executive produce along with Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Burk. David Slade is on board to direct the pilot and other episodes and will also executive produce. The cast is led by Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon and includes Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith, Gillian Anderson as Media, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, and Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya.

The Plot: American Gods has been translated into over 30 languages and earned numerous accolades including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel. The plot posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.