American Gods: all the news, updates, trailers, and commentary for the Starz show – The Verge

American Gods will get a third season and a new showrunner

2019-03-16T10:24:45-04:00

The second season of American Gods just premiered on Starz this past week, and fans can breath easy: Deadline reports that the network has renewed the series for a third season, and has brought on Hemlock Grove and Walking Dead producer Charles Eglee to serve as showrunner.

Based off of the classic fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, American Gods follows a former convict named Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who is pulled into an epic battle between factions of old and new deities when he's hired by a mysterious man, Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) to act as a bodyguard and driver.

While Starz quickly renewed the show after it premiered in 2017, the se …

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In season 2, American Gods has fallen on hard times

2019-03-10T14:41:40-04:00

Spoiler warning: This review reveals major plot points from season 1 of American Gods, and lays out season 2 storylines.

Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel American Gods tells the story of awesome, magical beings brought low by the loss of faith and the cold realities of the modern age. Now the same tragic fate has struck Starz's American Gods TV adaptation, which returned for season 2 on March 10th. Conflicts about the show's budget and adherence to Gaiman's story led showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green to leave after season 1, which led to the loss of standout cast members Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth. Gaiman chose Jesse Alexander …

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American Gods season 2 finally has a release date

2018-12-05T16:42:09-05:00

Spoilers ahead for the overall theme of American Gods, the season 1 adaptation and the fantasy novel it's based on.

Starz's long-overdue second season of its fantasy series American Gods finally has a release date: March 10th, 2019.

The series, based on Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel of the same name, debuted in April 2017. It follows a former convict, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is hired to serve as the bodyguard and driver for a man named Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) during a secretive mission across the country.

The show debuted its first season 2 teaser at New York Comic Con back in October. The new episodes will presumably pick up f …

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A storm is coming in American Gods’ new season 2 trailer

2018-10-05T13:57:42-04:00

Today at New York Comic Con, Starz hosted a panel for the upcoming second season of its fantasy show American Gods, and showed off our first look at what's to come in the show when it returns in 2019.

The trailer shows off the continuing story of Gaiman's novel, which looks to be picking up even more fantastic elements - and gods, old and new -as Shadow (Ricky Whittle) and Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) continue their road trip across America. Also teased is the pending clash between the old gods of mankind's past and the new gods, like Media and Technology, of the future. But mostly, American Gods seems content to just show off all the return …

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Starz has picked a new showrunner for American Gods

2018-02-03T12:11:15-05:00

Last May, Starz announced that it had renewed its fantasy series American Gods for a second season, only to run into a significant bump later in the year: showrunners Michael Green and Bryan Fuller left the show, reportedly over issues about its budget. After a search, the network has now hired a their replacement: Jesse Alexander, a producer who has worked on several other projects with Fuller, such as Star Trek: Discovery and Hannibal.

In January, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said that Greene and Fuller were still involved in the show, but that "it a little bit up in the air what their exact role will be." Fuller has since begun work to devel …

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How Preacher and American Gods take similar fantasies in opposite directions

2017-09-18T11:23:58-04:00

"I believe," Shadow breathes in the final episode of season one of the Starz series American Gods. Ricky Wittle, who plays Shadow, wears a beatific smile as he speaks; it's supposed to be the emotional climax of the series. But the smile looks overdetermined and vapid, like the grin of a car salesman, not a Buddha. Shadow's belief is vocal but unbelievable - especially after watching the recent season-two finale of the much more theologically cynical AMC show Preacher. American Gods touts the virtues of faith, but that faith is so vague, it ends up being meaningless. Preacher's blasphemy, on the other hand, carries conviction. You don't both …

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American Gods and The Handmaid’s Tale are about the same thing

2017-06-21T14:14:52-04:00

Recently, both Starz's American Gods and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale wrapped their debut seasons. Both shows have been acclaimed for their focus on relevant political issues, such as women's rights, the spread of fascism, and the dangers of religious extremism. But what makes both shows pressingly important in 2017 is that they're driven by a single focus: demonstrating the danger in the creeping normalization of a hostile ideology.

On their faces, both shows share some basic similarities: they're both adaptations of classic speculative fiction novels, and both explore the role religion plays in the United States. Handmaid's Tale author Marg …

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American Gods was just renewed for a second season

2017-05-11T15:31:43-04:00

American Gods, Starz's new fantasy series about deities and their sex lives, has been renewed for a second season. The news comes just two weeks after the series premiered to rave reviews, and Deadline reports that the new season is expected to launch in mid-2018.

"Bryan Fuller, Michael Green and Neil Gaiman have evolved the art form of television narratively, structurally and graphically with American Gods, and we're thrilled to be working again with these artists as they continue to build the worlds and wars of the gods," Starz programming president Carmi Zlotnik said in a statement.

Fuller and Green can continue to build the worlds and w …

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The creators of American Gods talk extreme violence, male nudity, and praying to guns

2017-05-01T12:58:41-04:00

American Gods, the new Starz series based on Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel of the same name, is unlike anything else on television. The series touches on ideas about worship and godhood, and is alternatingly abstract, meditative, and really, really bloody.

It tells the story of ex-convict Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who, thanks to the machinations of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Deadwood's Ian McShane), finds himself caught up in a war between the manifestations of Old Gods like Loki (Jonathan Tucker) and Anansi the Spider (Orlando Jones) and the so-called New Gods of media and technology, like the goddess literally named Media (The X-Files' Gi …

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How did American Gods pull off its shocking sex scene? With a lot of clever positioning

2017-05-01T12:29:53-04:00

In the premiere of American Gods, a woman named Bilquis (Yetide Badaki) is out for drinks with a man she met online. They're an odd couple. She's young, beautiful, and exquisitely dressed. He's a frumpy, awkward dad. As the date progresses to the bedroom, something begins to feel a little off.

American Gods has that name for a reason, and Bilquis is hardly your average woman. Shortly into their oddball sex session, it becomes clear that this unlucky man is literally losing himself in her; his entire body is sinking into her vagina like a spaghetti noodle into a slurping set of lips. As he starts to climax, Bilquis places her hand on his hea …

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