Yesterday, Starz announced another addition to the cast of the upcoming American Gods series. In the adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, Orlando Jones has been introduced to play the African trickster god, Anansi, also known in the book as Mr. Nancy. Anansi is a central character in the book and, as one of the Old Gods, was also seen in Gaiman’s spinoff novel, Anansi Boys. It’s an interesting addition because Mr. Nancy is a prominent role and shooting began back in late April, you’d think they would have cast the Anansi role earlier.
Also announced yesterday was Demore Barnes as Mr. Ibis, who you will recall runs the funeral parlor that Shadow holes up in for a while. I think Barnes is an excellent choice and I really look forward to seeing what he does with the polite Ibis role. The announcements come shortly after the perfectly casted addition of Gillian Anderson as Media, the personification of television and the representative of the New Gods. Since the last time we talked about casting for this series, Sean Harris left the production. Harris had been cast as Mad Sweeney. Pablo Schreiber was quickly announced as Harris’s replacement.
Casting for the show continues as the production builds. One thing’s for sure, this is one series that can’t get to my television soon enough.
