Starz and FremantleMedia North America have released the first photos from the set of American Gods starring Ricky Whittle. Starz announced filming is now underway in Toronto on the 10 episode first season of the series based on Neil Gaiman’s bestselling fantasy novel, with Gaiman involved as an executive producer. Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller and Heroes‘ Michael Green are adapting the book for the series and serve as showrunners as well as executive producers. Director David Slade and Fuller previously worked on together on Hannibal and are collaborating once again, with Slade directing multiple episodes and executive producing.
The Story: 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.
The Cast and Characters: The 100‘s Ricky Whittle plays Shadow Moon, Ian McShane (Deadwood) is Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) is Laura Moon, Sean Harris (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) is Mad Sweeney, Yetide Badaki (Aquarius) is Bilquis, Bruce Langley (Deadly Waters) is Technical Boy, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) is Mr World, and Jonathan Tucker (Kingdom) is Low Key Lyesmith.
Starz also announced four new cast members. Cloris Leachman will play Zorya Vechernyaya, Peter Stormare is Czernobog, Chris Obi is Anubis, and Mousa Kraish will play The Jinn.
Zorya Vechernyaya is described as “the eldest of three sisters who watch over the constellations, guarding against horrors forgotten by modern man. Once accustomed to royal status, the sisters have learned to survive on far less in a country that has no memory of them.” Czernobog is a “Slavic god of darkness and evil, Czernobog is reluctant to join the coming war, wary of Wednesday’s motivations.” Anubis is “the commanding ancient Egyptian god of the dead, gently guiding mortals through the judgment of their souls.” And The Jinn is “a mythical creature of the fire who understands a person’s deepest desires better than they do. He fears for his safety with the coming war, and considers fleeing America.”
