We here at Rogues Portal love American Gods.
So it’s no surprise that we were paying close attention to the show’s panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. Luckily we got a few new pieces of information and a brand new trailer.
The panel for the Starz series, premiering in 2017, was attended by Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Bryan Fuller, David Slade, Michael Green, Bruce Langley, Yetide Badaki, Pablo Schreiber and Neil Gaiman. The cast and crew answered basic questions about the show and gave out about as many details as would be expected.
A nice surprise was the adorable Kristin Chenoweth as the newly-announced Easter, a fresh addition to the cast.
The production crew and actors made a number of crowd pleasing statements, with Gaiman implying that any moment people loved from the book would be in the series. They also, thankfully, mentioned that the series would pull back and evolve on its own, taking the story and idea and choosing the best path for the show.
Which isn’t to say Gaiman isn’t consulted closely.
“I was very involved. I still am,” he told the crowd on Friday. He was consulted about the casting for lead character Shadow as well as Mr. Wednesday (“Oh my God, yes,” he said when Fuller suggested McShane) and has made it clear that it was important that the diversity of his cast was maintained. Luckily the crew and the network were on the same page.
Gaiman did imply he’d pull back and allow the show to be its own thing. “I’m less needed, which makes me very happy, too, because now I get surprised,” he said.
The trailer itself looks great. David Slade has an amazing eye when it comes to setting up the look of a series (Hannibal, Awake) and Bryan Fuller has my complete and total faith as a showrunner.
Plus they cast Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday and Peter Stormare is Czernobog. They’d have to do an awful lot wrong to make up for that much right.
