“American Gods” may not have been the best television program for the past 10 years, but he has certainly experienced one of the first first seasons in the last decade. Initially supervised by Bryan Fuller of “Hannibal” and “Pushing Daisies” acclaimed, the series did a fascinating job to adapt the original novel of Neil Gaiman from the release. Of course, season 1 only covered the first five chapters of the book in eight episodes, but it did with so much style and confidence that it is difficult to complain about the slow rhythm. The series knew exactly when and how to develop its source material; In simple terms, season 1 had the sauce in a way that Netflix’s television adaptation of the Gaiman “The Sandman” comics unfortunately never did a few years later.
Tragically, Fuller (and his co-showrunner Michael Green) left the show after season 1 due to a few budgetary conflicts with Starz. The series had considerably exceeded the budget during production during its first eight episodes; It was well spent money for fans, but not so much about managers who had to justify the investment of so many resources in a show with less than a million weekly viewers. There were also rumors that Gaiman was not satisfied with all the more and green changes to his book and that he had played a role in their departure.
With Fuller and Green are no longer involved, the first in season 2 experienced an immediate drop in quality. It was not horrible exactly, but the entrusting fanfaron of the show had disappeared and replaced by a kind of boring competence. The series rushed in a third season, the notes in an almost constant drop, before Starz announced that the party was over. When the “American gods” is canceled in March 2021, the network published the following declaration:
“” American Gods “will not come back for a fourth season. Everyone at Starz is grateful to the distribution and the dedicated team, and to our partners in Fremantle who brought life to the author and executive producer Neil Gaiman who talks about the cultural climate of our country.”
Production on the American gods has been riddled with controversy
Making even more tumultuous production behind the scenes, it was reported that the distribution and crew of the “American gods” were quite faithful to the vision of Fuller and Green for the show, and they expressed their frustration with the new showrunner Jesse Alexander. This quickly led Alexander himself to be replaced by the third show of the series, Charles “Chic” Eglee.
While the majority of Alexander’s return took place behind the scenes, Eglee’s reaction became a major public story when he broke out that he was the reason why Orlando Jones had left the series (or rather, was dismissed) before season 3. Jones had played in a memorable way the character of Mr. Nancy, a playful African God who responded to racism in the United States. It was a representation that could have made certain members of the public uncomfortable, but it was undeniably interesting, and Mr. Nancy became a favorite among many black viewers.
Jones also spoke publicly about the situation, saying that Egglee told him that his character “sent the bad message to black America”. As Jones explained later in a video he published on social networks:
“There will no longer be Mr. Nancy. […] Do not let these mothers tell you that they like Mr. Nancy. They don’t. I’m not going to name names, but the new showrunner of season 3 was born in Connecticut and Yale, so he is very intelligent and he thinks that Mr. Nancy is angry, being done is the bad message for black America. That’s right. This white man is seated in this decision -making chair and I am sure that he has many best black friends who are his advisers and have clearly indicated to him that if he did not get rid of this angry God Mr. Nancy, he would start an uprising of Denmark in this country. I mean, what could it be? “”
It was a bad look for the show before its third season, especially since it was a series that had been previously rented for its black and well -written black characters. A large part of this strong reputation was summed up in Jones himself, who had helped to write the dialogue for several of the black characters of the show in season 2 and had played a producer role.
Will the American gods never end up telling his story?
Due to a combination of downward notes, behind -the -scenes conflicts and the growing frustration of fans, “American Gods” was canceled before you can finish adapting its source equipment. At the time, however, it was reported that the program could potentially conclude its loose sons with a TV movie, a bit like what had happened with the Netflix series “Sense8” in 2018.
These plans never materialized, but for years later, there was still a certain hope that the series “American God” could continue in one way or another. Ricky Whittle, who played the protagonist Shadow Moon during the three seasons of the show, teased as much when he was interviewed by Sweleding Cool in February 2024. “[The show] is completely dead. “said Whittle.” I have had discussions for about two, three years now with Neil Gaiman to take it somewhere to finish it, to another streamer to finish history. “”
It was only a few months before Tortoise published the first cycle of allegations of sexual assault against Gaiman, followed by another (and even more overwhelming) element of Vulture, who still damaged his reputation and killed public appetite for projects based on work. Indeed, the adaptations of Gaiman like “The Graveyard Book” and “Good Omens” have since been paused, and no new Gaiman adaptation has been enlightened in the meantime. So, although there may have been a little risk that the “American gods” could obtain the conclusive end that the fans wanted, for the moment, at least, it seems that this door has closed.
