Gillian Anderson Joins ‘American Gods’ Cast

Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson (Photo Courtesy of Starz)

The X-FilesGillian Anderson has signed on to play Media, the mouthpiece for the New Gods, in Starz and FremantleMedia North America’s American Gods. The series is based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel and was adapted for television by Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller and Heroes‘ Michael Green. Fuller and Green are the series’ showrunners and will executive produce along with Gaiman, Craig Cegielski, Stefanie Berk, and David Slade. Slade’s also involved as the director of multiple episodes. Anderson joins a cast that includes Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Sean Harris, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover, Jonathan Tucker, Cloris Leachman, Peter Stormare, and Chris Obi.


Anderson’s character Media is described as the New Gods’ “public face and sales representative, by taking the form of various iconic celebrities. She lives off the attention and worship that people give to screens-to their laptops, their TVs, to their iPhones in their hands while they watch their TVs. Ever the perky spokesperson, and always in control, she spins stories in whatever direction best suits her.”

The Plot: American Gods 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.