‘American Gods’ Creators Tackle Religion as Starz Sticks with a Diverse Content Slate
08.01.2016
American Gods Showrunner and Executive Producer Bryan Fuller was raised Catholic. Showrunner and Executive Producer Michael Green was raised Jewish.
"It's hard not to recognize the power religion gives to people, and the inspiration in their daily lives," Fuller said during a Television Critics Association summer press tour panel about Starz's new series set to premiere in 2017.
The two friends-who first worked together on Heroes and "have been talking for the last 10 years on how to get back into business together"-wanted to reinforce the positive aspects of faith.
The series "manages to discuss religion in an inclusive way," Fuller said.
American Gods, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, shows mythological gods from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society's modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs.
RELATED: Starz' 'American Gods' Coming in 2017 Protagonist Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) is an ex-con who becomes the bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), who appears as a conman but is in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
"Largely it's about forgotten myths, forgotten cultures … things prayed to quietly," Green said.
In adopting the book for television, it was also about not "f-cking up" something so passionately loved by so many people.
"But we are two of those people," Green said.
They worked closely with Gaiman under his direction to think of the novel as a guideline, and expanded on many aspects, like "seizing on specific characters that were going to be fleshed out," particularly some of the female characters like Emily Browning's role as Laura Moon.
"We got to pick up that baton and run with it," Fuller said, adding there's an entire episode from her point of view.
In addition to Whittle, Browning and McShane, the series stars Pablo Schreiber (Mad Sweeney), Yetide Badaki (Bilquis), Bruce Langley (Technical Boy), Crispin Glover (Mr. World), Jonathan Tucker (Low Key Lyesmith), Gillian Anderson (Media), Peter Stormare (Czernobog), Cloris Leachman (Zorya Vechernyaya), Orlando Jones (Mr. Nancy), Demore Barnes (Mr. Ibis), Mousa Kraish (The Jinn), Chris Obi (Anubis) and Omid Abtahi (Salim).
He and Fuller established a mix of well known and rising actors, and were also conscious of ethnic sensitivity especially in light of the book's culturally specific descriptions. In Whittle's role, for instance, "it felt like in order to be true to the book, you had to cast the character that was written. Which was someone who was not white."
American Gods is just one of the projects in the pipeline for Starz as the network finalizes its merger with Lionsgate.
RELATED: Lionsgate to Buy Starz for $4.4 Billion
Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said the company will continue to serve underserved audiences of "people who don't see themselves reflected in a premium space," catering to diverse viewers and a large African American audience.
"From a content point of view Starz will very much remain on strategy," Albrecht said in response to the merger.
Despite walking away from the Emmy nomination season empty-handed, saying "it's not a level playing field" when it comes to what constitutes an award-winning show, Albrecht said Starz will continue to focus on strong programming and diverse content that fulfills the network's goals.
"I try to not get caught up in what everyone else is doing," Albrecht said.
To that end, Starz announced a slew of new and returning series.
Seasons two of Ash vs. Evil Dead and Blunt Talk are set to premiere October 2, while The Girlfriend Experience was also greenlit for a season two, and Outlander was renewed through book four.
"Outlander is going to be around for a while," Albrecht said.
Starz also extended a deal with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson to develop superhero vigilante series Tomorrow, Today.
In addition, the network is developing Dirty Girls Social Club based on the Alisa Valdes novel about six diverse professional women and longtime friends living in New York City; scripted series Pussy Valley from playwright Katori Hall that looks at the lives of pole dancers working down in the Dirty Delta; and telenovela Teresa with Televisa USA and Lionsgate, based on the Mexican telenovela that focuses on an undocumented young Latina clawing her way into the exclusive world of Los Angeles wealth.
[Image via Deadline]