When is American Gods coming back?

If you’re like us, you’re holding on to that STARZ subscription on Amazon Prime and hoping that American Gods will be back any minute. Well, feel free to let it go for a couple months (unless you’ve gotten deep into Black Sails). American Gods won’t be back until 2019.

Chris Albrecht, CEO of STARZ, has this to say:

It’s a difficult show to do, a lot of people to wrangle, so I can’t tell you exactly when the next season is going to air. We’re actively making sure we get it as soon as possible.

That’s fair– but there has been some drama in the meantime.

The drama
It didn’t seem like too long after season 1’s successful airing that news came out that showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green left the team, followed shortly by Gillian Anderson, who plays the enigmatic Media.

Fuller and Green parted ways with this dream project after FremantleMedia, the shows production company, refused to add to their already $10 million per-episode budget. Considering the visually divine spectacular they brought to the first season, it stands to reason that these were two artists who know what it should take to make their project come to life. Albrecht insists there is no bad blood between FremantleMedia and the two former-showrunners, too.

Image courtesy of STARZ

They ave been replaced by Hannibal-alumni Jesse Alexander, who has big credits of his own. Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and producer of the show, fully supports the change, telling Hollywood Reporter:

“He loves and understands the book… he’s dedicated to making future seasons of American Gods as good and as beautiful and as unique as they can be.”

What can we expect?

Season one ended right on the cusp of greatness: Shadow and Wednesday are on a road trip to the mysterious House on the Rock. That’s a real place, by the way: it’s located in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and yes you can go, and yes you should. I was lucky enough to get the chance to go for the ten-year anniversary of American Gods in 2010. The publishing of the book revitalized this uniquely bizaare tourist trap’s stream of income, and they’ve embraced this fountain of success.

Image courtesy of STARZ

At the anniversary event, Neil Gaiman did some readings before anyone was allowed into the house, and I’ll always recall him saying, “You think I toned up the weirdness of The House on the Rock for the book. When you go inside, you’ll find that I actually toned it down.”

(Side note: this event was also when Gaiman first acknowledged that the book had been optioned as a show!)

You’ll see what I mean in season two.

Most of the old cast is returning, with the exception of Gillian Anderson as Media. She’s been replaced by Kahyun Kim. And actors Dean Winters and Devery Jacobs have been announced as taking on the roles of book-favorites Mr. Town and Sam Black Crow respectively. More new characters are also in development from outside of book land, filling in the blanks of those beautiful Coming to America vingettes. Does that mean we’ll see more Norse gods and goddesses? One can only hope.

Gaiman has promised that season two will be more dangerous than season one, which is about main character Shadow Moon awakening from this hazy dream his life has been and interacting with this world of belief.