As a die-hard fan of author Neil Gaiman the thought of an American Gods TV series is tremendously exciting, but for a long time it didn't seem like it would ever happen. Fortunately Starz came to the rescue and now not only is it a real thing, but the first actual images of the modern day myth have arrived courtesy of EW, and they reveal three of th central characters: Mr. Wednesday, Shadow Moon, and Mad Sweeney..
Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Heroes) are working together on the series, which stars Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane as the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, and Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, all of whom are seen in these photos hanging out at Jack's Crocodile Bar. Gillian Anderson, Peter Stormare, Emily Browning, Jonathan Tucker, Crispin Glover,Cloris Leachman, and Orlando Jones co-star in a story that centers on the battle between the new gods and the old.
Here's what Fuller had to say about the importance of the Crocodile Bar, one of the book's key locales, as well as the perfect casting of McShane as Mr. Wednesday. He does have a certain Al Swearengen quality to him...
“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. [Jack’s] is a kind of hillbilly chic aesthetic for Shadow’s entrée into the world of the gods.”
“I think the comedy and charm and ease of Wednesday’s appeal is very well-suited for Ian 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.”
And McShane's guaranteed to stick around longer than he did on Game of Thrones, that's for sure. American Gods debuts in 2017.
