Posted in: American Gods, Starz, TV, YouTube | Tagged: american gods, neil gaiman, ricky whittle, starz

American Gods Return Chances "Very Much Not Dead": Ricky Whittle

Ricky Whittle shared an update on American Gods, offering some promising hope when it comes to the future of the Neil Gaiman adaptation.

This March 21st will mark three years since "Tears of the Wrath-Bearing Tree" aired, originally the third season finale of STARZ's live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. But eight days after it aired, we learned that it would also be its series finale – the cable network canceled the series after a three-season run from 2017 to 2019. Shortly after, production company Fremantle committed to giving the series a proper finale (even if not a full fourth season), while Gaiman, series star Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon), and other members of the show's cast & crew did what they could to keep hope alive. But the rumblings about a possible return had been pretty quiet for some time – so much so that we assumed that the show's chances at a future had died a slow, quiet death. So you can imagine our surprise when we got the response from Whittle that we did during a recent interview…

While promoting his film Land of Bad from HFG (set to release on February 16th), Bleeding Cool's Tom Chang asked the question that we dreaded the answer to. Should we be giving American Gods its last rites? Not yet, apparently – with Whittle offering a surprising & optimistic response: "It is very much not dead." Whittle continued, "I've had discussions for about two, three years now with Neil Gaiman about taking it somewhere to finish it, to another streamer to finish the story." From there, Whittle noted that there was much more to Shadow's journey that Gaiman wrote that still needed to be told – stories Whittle would love to tell.

"So there's more story there for Shadow Moon to return. And it's something that I'm very interested in. I want to finish the book 'American Gods," Neil [Gaiman] and I want to finish it for the fans. He wants to finish that story because the end of the book is the best part." Without going into spoilers (you definitely need to read it – or reread it), Whittle is spot-on when he describes the ending as "mindblowing" with "those kind of 'Usual Suspects' moments" that leave readers staring at the pages as they attempted to process what they just read. "It's such an incredible twist that it would be a crime for us not to finish it. So there's definitely movement, and there's definitely talks between myself and Neil Gaiman in bringing bringing a team back to kind of finish the story," Whittle added.

"American Gods" is the epic story of an inevitable war building between the Old Gods of mythology and our New Gods of technology. Whittle stars as ex-con Shadow Moon, a man pulled into the service of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, played by Ian McShane ("Deadwood", John Wick) — only to discover that not only is his charismatic but un-trustable boss actually the Norse All-Father god Odin, he's also…Shadow's father.

In Season Three, Shadow angrily pushes this apparent destiny away and settles in the idyllic snowy town of Lakeside, Wisconsin — to make his own path, guided by the gods of his Black ancestors, the Orishas. But he'll soon discover that this town's still waters run deep, and dark, and bloody, and that you don't get to simply reject being a god. The only choice — and a choice you have to make — is what kind of god you're going to be.

STARZ'S American Gods stars Ricky Whittle (The 100, Austenland) as 'Shadow Moon,' Ian McShane (Deadwood, Ray Donovan) as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, The Affair) as Laura Moon, Yetide Badaki (Aquarius, This Is Us) as Bilquis, Bruce Langley (Deadly Waters) as Tech Boy, Omid Abtahi (The Mandalorian, Damien) as Salim, Ashley Reyes (Night Has Settled) as Cordelia, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as World, Demore Barnes (12 Monkeys, Waco) as Mr. Ibis, Devery Jacobs (Cardinal, The Order) as Sam Black Crow, and Blythe Danner (Huff, Will & Grace) as Demeter.

The series also stars Julia Sweeney (Shrill, Saturday Night Live) as Hinzelmann, Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones, InHumans) as Liam Doyle, Danny Trejo (Machete) as World, Peter Stormare (Fargo, Prison Break) as Czernobog, Denis O'Hare (True Blood, Dallas Buyers Club) as Tyr, Lela Loren (Power, Altered Carbon) as Marguerite Olsen, Dominique Jackson (Pose) as World, Wale (American Honey, Godfather of Harlem) as Chango, Herizen Guardiola (The Get Down) as Oshun, and Eric Johnson (The Girlfriend Experience, Vikings) as Chad Mulligan.

Produced by Fremantle with Executive Producer Charles H. Eglee serving as showrunner, STARZ's American Gods is based on author and EP Neil Gaiman's modern classic novel. Anne Kenney, Damian Kindler, David Paul Francis, Mark Tinker, Ian McShane, Craig Cegielski, and Stefanie Berk also executive produce.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!