Ian McShane portrays Mr. Wednesday, Ricky Whittle is Shadow Moon and Pablo Schreiber stars as Mad Sweeney on the Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's popular fantasy novel.
- Jun 17, 2016
AceShowbiz - Here's the first look at "American Gods". EW has got its hands on two pictures of the upcoming Starz series based on Neil Gaiman's contemporary fantasy novel that has won Hugo and Nebula Awards.
One of the photos puts the focus on Ian McShane's Mr. Wednesday, who is sitting on a bar stool. He's apparently observing Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) and Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), who are having a brawl in another image.
�American Gods� exclusive first look: Meet Shadow, Wednesday, and Mad Sweeney https://t.co/tML9D3Opv6 via @EW
— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) June 16, 2016
The scene is set in Jack's Crocodile Bar, "where Shadow first proves his might and mettle to the mysterious Wednesday in a fist-fight with the pugnacious, drunk leprechaun," so EW describes it. "It was one of the sets that we were the most excited about and an opportunity to do a tonal landgrab for what we are and what the style of the show will be," says exec producer Bryan Fuller. "[Jack's] is a kind of hillbilly chic aesthetic for Shadow's entree into the world of the gods."
The novel that blends Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology follows Shadow Moon, an ex-con who becomes bodyguard for Mr. Wednesday, a con man but in reality one of the older gods who travels across America to gather American manifestations of the Old Gods of ancient mythology to prepare for a battle against the New American Gods.
Fuller gushes about McShane, "He has a vibrancy as Wednesday that could have gone so many different ways in other actors' hands, but has such a specificity and reality, despite the situation at hand." As for Shadow, he says, "His experience of [the world of the gods] is very genuine and grounded, and we want to watch him be introduced to and beaten up by this new reality."
The cast also includes Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith, Gillian Anderson as Media, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy, Demore Barnes as Mr. Ibis, and Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya. The series is slated to premiere on Starz in 2017.
