American Gods has lost yet another integral part of the series. This time around, it’s Orlando Jones, who played the witty, passionate trickster god Mr. Nancy, who debuted in season 1 giving a memorable monologue aboard a slave ship bound for the Americas.
Since the series premiered, it’s gone through a lot — and I mean a lot — of changes. It’s been through so many that I’m always half-expecting to get the announcement that it’s been cancelled. First, showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green left at the end of season 1. Jesse Alexander was hired to replace them, but he was eventually let go as well. Gillian Anderson, too, did not return as the new god Media after season 3. For season 3, Charles Eglee was brought in to take over as showrunner. He’s made a lot of new hires, but Jones now claims that Eglee fired him.
"There will be no more Mr. Nancy. Don’t let these motherfuckers tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don’t. I’m not going to name names but the new season 3 showrunner [Eglee] is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he’s very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy’s angry, get shit done is the wrong message for black America. That’s right. This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I’m sure he has many black bffs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god Mr. Nancy he’d start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?"
That’s honesty worthy of Mr. Nancy himself.
Jones has been a fan favorite on the series since it began. It’s hard to imagine the show without him.
Freemantle, which produces the show, eventually commented on the situation, per Deadline:
"The storylines of American Gods have continually shifted and evolved to reflect the complex mythology of the source material. Mr. Jones’ option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within Season 3. Several new characters, many of which have already been announced, will be introduced into Shadow Moon’s world that will further contribute to the show’s legacy as one of the most diverse series on television."
If Freemantle wants American Gods fans to understand their point of view, I feel like they’ll need to dig deeper than this. After all, the show has changed a ton about the book. Why should Mr. Nancy not being in this particular stretch stop them from writing a part for him? We know a lot of those new characters the statement talks about don’t feature in the book, either.
Jones, naturally, isn’t buying it at all, telling Variety that Starz didn’t tell him that he wouldn’t be returning until the last second, and this after he was brought into the writers’ room in season 2 to help write for Nancy in particular, and some of the other characters of color.
"I know I’m not going to be on American Gods and you’re trying to play like it’s some option thing that you’re not picking up, but you fired me, I get it. But you also took me out of all this other work that I could do… To now say what they’re saying, which is, ‘Oh, we didn’t pick up his option,’ is laughable. Because if that’s the case, why couldn’t you have told me that months ago? Why did you take me out of work? Why did you hurt my family? Why did you not talk to me at all [and] never deign to have a conversation with me? And, and then not even tell the fans?"
“I don’t understand,” he continued. “I didn’t do anything. I did my job; I did nothing else, and I didn’t bully my way into the writing room. You asked me.”
The picture Jones paints of a showrunner who doesn’t want to make good on the show’s original pledge to give meaty roles to people of color is pretty damning. (Mousa Kraish has also confirmed that he will not be returning as the Jinn.) And so we continue to watch to see if American Gods survives the next bump in the road.
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h/t AV Club