“Today’s my day.”
Oh. Oh, please deliver this show to my face. Presently.
Don’t waste time reading my words–the first trailer for the American Gods television series has landed.
Observe:
I don’t normally throw around phrases like “It’s like they just jumped right off the page!” but HOW IS IT LIKE THEY JUST JUMPED RIGHT OFF THE PAGE. Ugh. It’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful, I’m going to go find a fainting couch to chill out on for a bit.
But don’t run off! I’ll have more information up from the San Diego Comic Con panel in a jiffy!
UPDATE:
Yvette Nicole Brown (of Community fame) was the panel moderator at SDCC. On stage were showrunners Bryan Fuller, Michael Green, executive producer and director David Slade, and the one and only Neil Gaiman! On the actor side of things, we had Bruce Langley (Technical Boy), Yetide Badaki (Bilquis), Pablo Schreiber (Mad Sweeney), Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon), and Ian McShane (Mr. Wednesday).
But there was an extra special cast announcement! Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies, Wicked) will be playing Easter! So she also popped on stage, and later in the panel said that while she is religious herself, she understands why Easter is unhappy that Jesus “stole her holiday.”
Badaki, who plays Bilquis, apparently received her American citizenship only 3 years ago, and joked that it only took that long to go from American citizen to American God! The crowd burst into applause for that.
Neil Gaiman admitted to being very involved in the early casting process, particularly where Shadow was concerned–it took them months to find Ricky Whittle. Gaiman has stepped back since then, and admitted enjoying the surprise as they continued to cast. According to him, there was no pushback from Starz regarding casting the show accurately when it came to the ethnicity of the actors. Michael Green said that they got a lot of praise for that, but doesn’t think they should have–it’s a baseline for casting.
Some hints about Technical Boy; apparently, he will be an ever-changing character. Every time we see him, he will appear differently, since technology is always altering and moving forward. Creators said the show will be tackling some very serious issues, among them gun control, racial divides, women’s issues, and how technology come between us. However, they promised that the show is not intent of bashing religion–instead, they intend to examine how faith effects humanity.
When someone asked the panel about the potential for a god of atheism, Gaiman made the point that Pokemon Go! is certainly a point of worship today. He also hinted that there were tens of thousands of words that never made it into the American Gods manuscript that might crop up in the show….
Can’t. Wait.
Need more while you whittle away the hours until the premiere? You should check out our American Gods Reread!
And don’t forget the American Gods Mixtape… which pieces together every song listened to in the book–it’s a great soundtrack for any roadtrip.
