Neil Gaiman: American Gods season 3 gets “the story back on track”

There’s been a lot of drama behind the scenes of American Gods, but with a premiere date finally in place, things are leveling out.

American Gods, Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s road-tripping supernatural epic, has had a bit of a bumpy road since premiering in 2017. There’s been a lot of turnover behind the scenes, with original showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green leaving after season 1 and replacement Jesse Alexander leaving after season 2. It’s also haemorrhaged cast members: Gillian Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth and Orlando Jones all leaving for one reason or another, with Jones’ exit in particular being pretty rough.

But things are straightening out. Former The Walking Dead executive producer Charles “Chic” Eglee is on board for season 3, and Starz finally announced a release date: we’ll catch up with demi-god Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), Mr. Wednesday (Odin) and the rest of the remaining gods on January 10, 2021:

The art there is a reference to the Clunker Board from Hinzelmann’s shop, from Gaiman’s book. Season 3 will find Shadow settling for a while in the (seemingly) sleepy town of Lakeside, where he’ll meet yet more outlandish characters as the war between the old and new gods heats up. We don’t know everything that’s coming, but we do know that the show has cast Danny Trejo, Blythe Danner, Julia Sweeney and Marilyn Manson, so it’s looking to make an impression.

Gaiman wrote about the upcoming season in an open letter, promising that this season will touch on trenchant themes. “We knew…that we wanted to continue to root the show in the landscapes of America,” he wrote. “To explore what ‘America’ means to its people and to talk about immigrants — about the very different people who came to this remarkable land and brought their gods with them. The new gods of phone and app and glitter demand our attention and our love, and the old gods want to mean something again.”

"America must be for all of us, and American Gods must reflect that. This season truly feels as if it does. It’s full of drama and emotion, the very real and the utterly strange, and it features some of the finest performances the show has yet seen. It brings back favorite characters, some in remarkable new ways, and we will encounter people and gods we’ve never met before. I’m proud of our brilliant cast — of Ricky and Emily, of Yetide and Ian, Bruce, Demore, Omid and all the rest — and of what the writers have done to bring the story back on track."

American Gods started fairly strong with the first season and lost its way a bit in the second, but Gaiman’s passion is encouraging. I’ll be looking forward to January.

Meanwhile, Gaiman is dropping some hints about the other big adaptation of one of this many iconic works: The Sandman on Netflix. The author assures fans that he’s deeply involved in the process on everything from scripting to casting:

The Sandman is a sprawling, complicated work that follows the adventures of the Endless, a family of ageless beings who personify different parts of the human condition. It’s gorgeous and through-provoking, but also dense and non-linear, which means there’s a danger Netflix may pull a Netflix and cancel it a couple seasons in if it’s not a monster hit right out of the gate. If that happens, Gaiman promises that there are “protections” in place:

Finally, Gaiman reveals how he is (and isn’t) like the protagonist, Dream:

Word is that English actor Tom Sturridge will play Dream on the show, although that’s not confirmed and we haven’t heard anything else about casting. Hopefully we start getting info on that soon.

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