American Gods creator Neil Gaiman is opening up exclusively to Digital Spy about the show's casting controversy.
There has been speculation about the future of the cast going forward, following Orlando Jones's recent comments on having his character Anansi written out of the series by the new showrunner.
When we recently chatted to Gaiman – whose book provided the basis for American Gods – he explained that there was a miscommunication over the way the cast would be used in the third season.
"Well, I think there was a lot of confusion, and I think it probably could have been handled much better, and that's including communicating with the cast over what was happening in this season, and what's going to be happening in season four," he said.
The author went on: "I'll put it this way: there are a lot of actors who seem to think that they've been fired because they weren't in season three, and you're sort of going, 'You're not in this season because stuff is happening in the season that you're not in. That doesn't mean you're not coming back. There's an awful lot of stuff that doesn't mean'.
"But what it does mean is that the showrunner is doing – and the writers are doing the Lakeside storyline, and it's their plot. They're building up Shadow turning up in the middle of winter, and, you know, so there's this strange, little town.
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"It's just like the book. You actually meet a whole bunch of new characters, and there's a new plot that then winds up at the end, tying into the old plot."
While some familiar faces will be missing in season three, American Gods has signed up Game of Thrones baddie Iwan Rheon and Marilyn Manson as new characters.
American Gods airs on Starz in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
