Amazon picks up ‘Anansi Boys’: Will any of the cast for ‘American Gods’ appear?
It’s official for any fans of American Gods: Neil Gaiman’s literary spin off to American Gods called Anansi Boys is finally getting their own TV adaptation. Hopefully, this upcoming series won’t have the same horrible fate as American Gods, so we’re crossing our fingers hoping that Amazon Studios, the company that picked up the series, will finally do the TV adaptation of the literary books justice.
While fans of American Gods may be jumping for joy right now upon hearing this great news, they may now be wondering if the original cast for the TV show will be back to star in Anansi Boys. Let’s take a look at all the exciting details we know so far about the upcoming TV adaptation.
Gods to boys
If you all remember correctly, then you must recall just how upsetting it was for the cast, crew, and fans of the American Gods TV series after it was cancelled unceremoniously. The show got to see three seasons on Starz before it left us fans off with a cliffhanger ending. Neil Gaiman as well as producers from Fremantle have since been trying to keep the American Gods world alive, and even supposedly have a movie in the works.
However, so far, we have yet to hear of an update on the American Gods film, and fans have been itching to see more of the world that was so abruptly taken from them. While Anansi Boys won’t be American Gods, it sure as heck is close enough. According to Gaiman, the books are symbiotic but separate, as he wrote “I borrowed Mr Nancy from the story I had not yet told and I put him, or a version of him, into American Gods”.
Orlando Jones was in the cast playing Mr. Nancy for two seasons of American Gods before he was fired before season three because showrunner Chic Eglee thought “Mr. Nancy’s angry, get sh– done is the wrong message for Black America”. Jones expressed in a later video clip to his fans: “Don’t let these motherf–ers tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don’t”, and later on said his experience was “a blindside”.
The upcoming show
As for the upcoming show, Amazon Studios has so far planned Anansi Boys to be a six-episode limited series, and filming is scheduled to take place in Scotland later this year. They also released amazing key art to celebrate the official announcement of the show on Wednesday. Gaiman will be running the series with Douglas Mackinnon while also having a hand on the screenwriting of the episodes along with other names.
Neil Gaiman expressed: “Anansi Boys as a TV series has been a long time coming — I first started working with [production companies] Endor and Red on making it over a decade ago. We needed Amazon Prime to come on board and embrace our vision. I’m so thrilled it’s happening and that people will be meeting Mr. Nancy, Charlie, and Spider, the Bird Woman and the rest of them”.
“We are trying to make a new kind of show with Anansi Boys, and to break ground with it to make something that celebrates and rejoices in diversity both in front of and behind the camera”, the author added. Entertainment Weekly wrote that “Anansi Boys centers on the family of Mr. Nancy, the African trickster god Anansi, who appears in both books”.
“It’s a story about Charlie Nancy, who learns that his recently deceased father is none other than Anansi. On top of that, he has a brother he never knew about who’s entering his life and making it more dangerous”, EW added. Could we expect to see some of the original cast for American Gods make a comeback in Anansi Boys? We guess we’ll just have to wait and find out for ourselves.
