Neil Gaiman talks American Gods book sequel, Starz adaptation

Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel American Gods, about a brewing war between old and new deities, has hit a few well-publicized roadblocks. First, original showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green left the show after its first season. Then it came out that X-Files vet Gillian Anderson wouldn’t return as the new god Media (no matter how spot-on her Lucille Ball impression was). Now, Kristin Chenoweth revealed that she wouldn’t be returning as the old god Easter, saying she “couldn’t come back” without Fuller.

But that doesn’t chafe Gaiman none. He’s in rather high demand these days, what with him serving as a creative consultant on the second season of American Gods and as showrunner on Good Omens for Amazon. And as he told ScreenRant at this year’s New York Comic Con, he’s moving forward with work on a proper sequel to American Gods, so even if the TV adaptation sinks under the weight of its behind-the-scenes problems, fans can still look forward to a proper follow-up in book form. “[T]here are hooks built into American Gods that the sequel clips onto,” he said. “And some of them are big and obvious, and some of them are almost invisible, and only I know how they work.”

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He also talked about the trajectory the show is on, and I’m not gonna lie: it alarmed me a bit.

"If we make it through 5 seasons and we get to finish the book, and then we’ve done the stories of Shadow in the UK, I can get to roll up my sleeves and do the story of Shadow’s return to the US. But that’s a long way down the line."

So he’s saying that he hopes the show will eventually adapt the events of his American Gods sequel, which is fair enough. But in season 6? Does that mean he thinks it will take Starz fully five seasons to get through the events of the first book, which is itself not that long? HBO adapted the entirely of A Game of Thrones, which is fair bit longer than American Gods, in one season of television, and it was terrific. American Gods season 1 already felt like it was stretching things out unnecessarily; I don’t know how long audiences will hold on if that continues, or gets worse.

American Gods returns for its second season sometime next year. We’ll see if there’s room for it.

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h/t TV LIne