Orlando Jones calls out American Gods star Ricky Whittle for lack of support

Starz’s American Gods is the most drama-prone drama TV. There’s been some cast turnover, with stars like Gillian Anderson (the new god Media) bowing out after the first season. The Neil Gaiman adaptation has had three different showrunners at this point, with new hire Charles Eglee piloting the ship as it goes into season 3. Eglee is also involved in some drama that cropped up last year, when actor Orlando Jones — who plays the trickster god Mr. Nancy — revealed that production company Freemantle had fired him, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Jones reserved a lot of ire for Eglee in particular, implying that the showrunner was uncomfortable with the angry tone Nancy set as a character. “Don’t let these motherfuckers tell you they love Mr. Nancy,” he said in a Twitter video. “They don’t.”

And now, the drama continues. Jones has posted some DMs sent him back in December by star Ricky Whittle, who plays lead character Shadow Moon. Whittle accuses Jones of “using the racism card to burn [your] friend’s house down…but we both know it’s just incompetence and not racism and we are caught in the crossfire.”

"I get you’re angry, I get THEY cost you money, we totally had your back on the incompetence, but pulling the race card to incite public trolls is a bullshit tactic and you know it."

Jones responded briefly in the thread, but saved most of his commentary for this tweet:

Basically, Jones accuses Orlando — whom he calls “this person” of patronizing him, covering for his bosses, and for not reaching out earlier. And apparently these two are going to meet at a convention in Kansas City soon. Yikes.

In short, this is a very messy situation, which is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected on a show as prone to problems as this. You can take Whittle’s comments about “incompetence” however you like.

All that said, it does look like the third season is going ahead. Starz has hired a bunch of new cast members — including Pose star Dominique Jackson, shock rocker Marilyn Manson and consummate pro Blythe Danner — and even released an official photo from the set:

That said, we still don’t have an official release date. If things are going to get worse before they get better, now’s the time.

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