American Gods is an English Novel written by Neil Gaiman in 2001. It is a mix of fantasy, Americana and elements from modern and ancient Greek mythology. The story of the novel revolves around believing in mythological creatures. In fact, the premise explains that immigrants that came to the U.S.A. brought with them a variety of spirits and gods that are now among the humans. Years have passed and their power has decreased because of a progressing lack of faith in people. New gods has woken up as a reflex of America's devious obsession with gossip, drugs, alcohol, media and many others social problems.
The main character of the story is Shadow, who is a shy and lonely ex prisoner that is released from jail because of an accident: both his wife Laura and his best friend died in car crash and he doesn't have anyone else left on the planet. He starts working as a bodyguard for a strange figure: Mr. Wednesday. He is apparently aware of everything about Shadow's life, but he wants to travel with him in order to find his "friends." Shadow doesn't know that Mr. Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin and he is searching for fellow gods.
The book was a critical and commercial success: it won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards for Best Novel in 2002, and received as well a nomination for Mythoepic, International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards.
Neil Gaiman also announced in an interview with MTV that he is working at a possible sequel, American Gods 2.
But what about TV? For years, there have been rumours about a possible adaptation as a movie or TV Series. HBO bought the rights from Gaiman but there weren't any positive news after that. In 2014 Starz rebought American Gods' rights, but there haven't been official updates until yestarday.
Now this is it, Starz has green lighted an entire season of American Gods.
As Showtime has been doing with Twin Peaks, Starz is preparing the perfect product. The series will be created by the acclaimed Hannibal's creator Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Dead like me) and Kings' Micheal Green. Neil Gaiman will be part of the project as a producer.
Starz has also launched an hashtag called #CastingShadow on Twitter in order to involve fans before the launch of the show. We couldn't be more happy and excited. Are you looking forward to watching American Gods' TV series? What are your dream casting choices for Shadow?
