American Gods on Starz

[Argonath Diver]

Glad to hear that they are shooting for three seasons - I think that seems about right. I'd put that trailer up on facebook for my friends, and had several people ask me why I was so hyped up about it. So I found a lucky cheap copy at my neighborhood bookstore. Great timing, as I needed a good re-read. I hope the TV show throws in the loads and loads of hinted-at gods without specifically letting the audience know whom they are seeing as characters. I really enjoyed trying to figure out some of the barely-mentioned ones.

Boy are there some trippy scenes to try to film for a wider audience. I love the casting so far, so I remain wholly optimistic.

[Talleyrand]

4 hours ago, matt b said:

I just checked http://www.frowl.org/gods/gods.html which lists all of the gods and supernatural entities in American Gods (major spoilers, obviously), and nope, it doesn't look like Vulcan appears in the book. It's certainly plausible enough that he would show up, though. IIRC, there aren't really any representatives of the Roman pantheon, so why not Vulcan?

Hadrian's lover Antinous, who was deified shows up for the confrontation.

But closest to a member of the Roman pantheon actually showing up was speculation that the god in Vegas who no-one can remember is Pluto due to the fact he had a helmet of invisibility (no mortals remembering or noticing him mostly) and he was the god of wealth (being able to feel the flow of wealth and telling the waitress to be in a certain spot to make money) 

[Werthead]

Interesting. Season 1 will cover about one-quarter of the novel and the infamous "sex eating" scene will be in the first episode.

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Interesting. Season 1 will cover about one-quarter of the novel and the infamous "sex eating" scene will be in the first episode.

I hope there's additional material in those 9 episodes if it's covering a quarter of the book. Maybe have an episode for each god they meet up with and try to recruit. Or is that a bit too episodic?

[Mark Antony]

Jeremy Davies joins cast as Jesus  

 

[GallowKnight]

1 hour ago, Mark Antony said:

Jeremy Davies joins cast as Jesus  

 

That's an interesting casting choice.

[red snow]

8 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

That's an interesting casting choice.

He's pretty good in everything I've seen him in and he has a passive vibe.

I'm trying to remember if Jesus was in the book. Also wondering how many complaints it will get if Jesus is lumped in the same group as the old gods? I think it's problematic to include him as he should be able to wipe the floor with all of the pagan gods (unless there's some nice meta commentary on us wotshipping the TV and internet as much/more than practicing christians). Should make for a fun scene.

I'm also thinking I should reread the novel after season 1 ends. Worked well with Preacher.

[HexMachina]

43 minutes ago, red snow said:

He's pretty good in everything I've seen him in and he has a passive vibe.

I'm trying to remember if Jesus was in the book. Also wondering how many complaints it will get if Jesus is lumped in the same group as the old gods? I think it's problematic to include him as he should be able to wipe the floor with all of the pagan gods (unless there's some nice meta commentary on us wotshipping the TV and internet as much/more than practicing christians). Should make for a fun scene.

I'm also thinking I should reread the novel after season 1 ends. Worked well with Preacher.

I'm struggling to recall if he is in or not too. I have some vague idea that he might be mentioned in passing but I'm not certain. Regardless, he certainly should be lumped in with the Old Gods, since the New Gods are all to do with materialistic things

[polishgenius]

Iirc, he's mentioned, in the same context that they're mentioning here (Easter being resentful of him) but doesn't actually appear. I can see it being quite a minor role- a flashback or passing cameo. He can't be in it too much, and he can't be on either side; it would misbalance things, and change the entire framing of the show.

Gaiman has tended to be careful to avoid using Jesus and the New Testament even when he's digging into Christian and bible stuff.

[GallowKnight]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

He's pretty good in everything I've seen him in and he has a passive vibe.

I'm trying to remember if Jesus was in the book. Also wondering how many complaints it will get if Jesus is lumped in the same group as the old gods? I think it's problematic to include him as he should be able to wipe the floor with all of the pagan gods (unless there's some nice meta commentary on us wotshipping the TV and internet as much/more than practicing christians). Should make for a fun scene.

I'm also thinking I should reread the novel after season 1 ends. Worked well with Preacher.

He's definitely a good actor but not really what I picture as Jesus. Of course now I'm imagining Dickie Bennet from Justified as Jesus, which is a pretty entertaining image.

Jesus is mentioned in the book but I'm pretty sure he doesn't appear in person.

I wonder if this will be a specifically American version of Jesus though, the same way Wednesday is the American version of Odin?

[red snow]

2 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I'm struggling to recall if he is in or not too. I have some vague idea that he might be mentioned in passing but I'm not certain. Regardless, he certainly should be lumped in with the Old Gods, since the New Gods are all to do with materialistic things

 

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Iirc, he's mentioned, in the same context that they're mentioning here (Easter being resentful of him) but doesn't actually appear. I can see it being quite a minor role- a flashback or passing cameo. He can't be in it too much, and he can't be on either side; it would misbalance things, and change the entire framing of the show.

Gaiman has tended to be careful to avoid using Jesus and the New Testament even when he's digging into Christian and bible stuff.

I agree he should tip the balance as he's an old god that's still extant and heavily worshipped

I was also thinking the same about Gaiman. He's good at mining judeo-christian concepts like heaven/hell lucifer, angels and several old testament characters (particularly the early humans) but he tends to be cautious around the new testament when it comes to deities (as i think Judas has popped up in his work). It sort of makes sense as Gaiman is more interested in the fantastical/mythical aspects of Gods.

1 hour ago, GallowKnight said:

He's definitely a good actor but not really what I picture as Jesus. Of course now I'm imagining Dickie Bennet from Justified as Jesus, which is a pretty entertaining image.

Jesus is mentioned in the book but I'm pretty sure he doesn't appear in person.

I wonder if this will be a specifically American version of Jesus though, the same way Wednesday is the American version of Odin?

I still think it's a gamble to have Jesus as the same type of entity as the pantheon of gods. Again, Gaiman tends to have gods but with God indirectly above and behind all the others. I always get the impression his God can stand for all the other aspects of God in existing religions.  While I think it'd be fascinating to see an American Jesus (not to be confused with Mark Millar's comic!) I think they'd have to be careful how thtey tackle. It wouldn't offend me at all but I'm curious as to how it works within the world's rules. On one hand Jesus could just be like Hercules, etc although christians have been arguing the son of god/ god as man from the outset.

Back to the actual casting. I think it would be cool to have such a powerful god played by a guy who pretty much always comes off as the opposite of intimidating. So it'd be fun to see Easter cower before him. I just remembered he was in an episode of Hannibal too.

I'm trying to remember if the book went into much detail about how christianity stole a lot of the pagan god's traditions? The Easter scene suggests they did. The vikings even managed to somehow turn Jesus into a Thor-like character (Dan Carlin has a good podcast on it) and they inverted the Hammer emblem to become a cross. It would make Jesus into the great thief which would also be a fun take on him.

I'm starting to remember the things about the book that fascinated me. Definitely more an idea book than a plot book. Which is great for a show if they intend to expand upon it.

[polishgenius]

6 minutes ago, red snow said:

 I just remembered he was in an episode of Hannibal too.

Was he the 'is your social worker in that horse' guy?

[Calibandar]

On 1-9-2016 at 10:27 PM, red snow said:

I hope there's additional material in those 9 episodes if it's covering a quarter of the book. Maybe have an episode for each god they meet up with and try to recruit. Or is that a bit too episodic?

I also hope that since they split in 3 seasons, a lot of time will be spent on fleshing out the various Gods. That would be a be a big plus for me in the television treatment.

As for the split, I read that Gaiman is starting soon with his American Gods sequel, and that means it's probably at least 2 years away. I'm sure that played into the decision to go for 3 seasons. They'd have till 2020, or 2019 when they do the scripting and shooting.

He's got a Norse mythology novel-retelling out in February btw, looks interesting.

 

[red snow]

8 hours ago, Calibandar said:

I also hope that since they split in 3 seasons, a lot of time will be spent on fleshing out the various Gods. That would be a be a big plus for me in the television treatment.

As for the split, I read that Gaiman is starting soon with his American Gods sequel, and that means it's probably at least 2 years away. I'm sure that played into the decision to go for 3 seasons. They'd have till 2020, or 2019 when they do the scripting and shooting.

He's got a Norse mythology novel-retelling out in February btw, looks interesting.

 

I didn't realise there ws going to be a genuine sequel. I wonder if he'll have moved it to a contemporary setting to reflect the shift in strength of god's over the last 15 years?

Is the Norse mythology a straight-up retelling of the old stories or is it a Gaiman-like spin? Given how his works are littered by Norse mythology I imagine he's quite knowledgeable and I'd certainly like to read the classic versions by a great storyteller. Will keep an eye out for it.

[HexMachina]

Gaiman must be a pretty busy man right now. Pretty sure he was also working on stuff for Good Omens too, although maybe that was a while ago now

[red snow]

28 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Gaiman must be a pretty busy man right now. Pretty sure he was also working on stuff for Good Omens too, although maybe that was a while ago now

Considering it wasn't actually a "request from the grave" as initially reported, and something Pratchett discussed with him when he was still healthy enough to do so, I'm guessing he had a fair bit of lead time. I also don't think he's writing any of American Gods and may be a producer in the sense GRRM is with GOT. That said, it must still divert time away. I also noticed there's a 4 part anthology coming out called "Likely stories" on TV so he's certainly busier than he has been in some time.

[Calibandar]

9 hours ago, red snow said:

I didn't realise there ws going to be a genuine sequel. I wonder if he'll have moved it to a contemporary setting to reflect the shift in strength of god's over the last 15 years?

Is the Norse mythology a straight-up retelling of the old stories or is it a Gaiman-like spin? Given how his works are littered by Norse mythology I imagine he's quite knowledgeable and I'd certainly like to read the classic versions by a great storyteller. Will keep an eye out for it.

Yes, a genuine sequel has been planned for years but Gaiman kept putting it off, unfortunately, releasing other stuff first. He was talking about it already in 2010 when he released the "author's preferred text" edition of AG.

It's been many years since his last novel for adults, as I have lamented before.

But in July he posted that the AG sequel is next. I do believe he is also doing work on that Good Omens adaptation, and I also think he is doing some writing for the AG series.

The Norse mythology book out in February is a Gaiman-like spin on the Norse myths we all know and love. I am quite intrigued to see what he comes up with here.

[red snow]

the Norse book definitely sounds like it will be worth a look.

I get the impression he went through a phase of being most creative with children's books. Both "graveyard" and "Ocean" were good fun. Maybe he's just getting back into the zone for the adult novels? We can hope the mythology book is a stepping stone.

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Meet Vulcan, American Gods' god of guns

Quote

Meet Vulcan, played by actor Corbin Bernsen (Psych, L.A. Law). He’s based on the Roman god of metalworking and volcanoes… so, essentially, the god of weaponry and fire, which translates into a modern character who has done fairly well for himself in a country where guns reign in the discourse.

“Vulcan’s the god of the volcano and the forge, and what is the modern-day extrapolation of what that god could do?” muses co-showrunner Bryan Fuller. “We started talking about America’s obsession with guns and gun control and, really, if you’re holding a gun in your hand, it’s a mini volcano, and perhaps, through this character, there’s a conversation to be had.”

Vulcan wasn’t written into Neil Gaiman’s original 2001 novel that serves as the inspiration for the series, but the character is an important new addition from Gaiman himself.

 

[Mark Antony]

https://tvline.com/2017/02/23/american-gods-premiere-date-season-1-starz-series-neil-gaiman/

Starts Sunday April 30th