More excellent casting news from Starz upcoming American Gods series – Orlando Jones will be joining the cast as African trickster god Anansi, also known by the human name of “Mr. Nancy”. This is a huge moment for Jones, as this character figures prominently into the action and has a great deal of interaction with Mr. Wednesday, who will be played by Ian McShane. Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name is the source for the series, which has a sequel entitled “Anansi Boys” and fans are certainly excited by the casting of another major player in Gaiman’s universe.
This news comes on the heels of American Gods scoring the fantastic Gillian Anderson as Media, the spokesperson for the new gods here on Earth (who are locked in a battle with the old gods). Executive produced by Bryan Fuller (previously of Hannibal, he definitely has his hands full with both American Gods and the new Star Trek series coming out in January 2017), American Gods is hotly anticipated and already boasts a large fan base, having been translated into over 30 languages and has earned numerous accolades, including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel. Starz is already doing quite well with Outlander, another series adapted from award-winning novels.
Demore Barnes has also been added to the cast as Mr. Ibis, the keeper of stories, and joins not only Anderson and McShane, but Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon), Emily Browning (Laura Moon), Pablo Schreiber (Mad Sweeney), Yetide Badaki (Bilquis), Bruce Langley (Technical Boy), Crispin Glover (Mr. World), Jonathan Tucker (Low Key Lyesmith), Peter Stormare (Czernobog), and Cloris Leachman (Zorya Vechernyaya).
Jones’ most recent TV role was as Detective Frank Irving on cult favorite Sleepy Hollow, on which he was underutilized before being unceremoniously killed off. I am very happy to see he’s landed with Bryan Fuller, who is a fantastic producer and has a great reputation in Hollywood as a creative genius and all-around wonderful guy. The casting for American Gods is only getting better, and I am looking forward to seeing who else they announce in the future. For now, we eagerly await a release date, which is right now projected to be in early 2017.
Source: Variety