After a few tumultuous departures following the first season of Starz’s American Gods series, filming on the second season of the show is finally underway. Starz today released a first look at Season 2, or at least at its first filming location, The House on the Rock, a sort of oddity museum and tourist attraction in Wisconsin. They also announced the show would return in 2019, with the delay likely having much to do with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green’s departures as showrunners.
Prepare for war. #AmericanGods Season 2 is coming to @STARZ in 2019. pic.twitter.com/AiAfbcVaL1
— American Gods (@AmericanGodsSTZ) April 30, 2018
“Things are gonna get darker. Things are gonna get more dangerous,” Executive Producer Neil Gaiman said in the video. Gaiman is also the author of the original novel on which the series is based.
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The featurette shows the series’ main character, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), joined by his boss and God of Thunder, Mr. Wednesday/Odin (Ian McShane), as well as Bilquis (Yetide Badaki), the Jinn (Mousa Kraish) and Salim (Omid Abtahi). Gaiman also posted a picture commemorating Season 2’s production kick-off that includes Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy.
Season 1 ended with Bilquis on her way to The House on the Rock, which fans of the novel will recognize it as a key location in the overall story. Gaiman’s gods visit a number of strange American attractions on their travels to rally the old gods in the fight against the new ones (which are people’s obsession with recent technology, as represented by the gods Media, Technical Boy and Mr. World).
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The House on the Rock is a unique house in Wisconsin designed by Alex Jordan Jr., supposedly out of spite toward Frank Lloyd Wright’s dismissal of his ideas. It boasts many strange oddities, chief among them (as seen in the video and Gaiman’s picture) is the World’s Largest Indoor Carousel.
Gaiman has joined the series this season in a larger, supervisorial role. Supposedly, his lack of enthusiasm for Fuller and Green’s direction of the show’s content in Season 1 contributed to their departure. The duo also clashed with Freemantle Media over budgetary restrictions. Jesse Alexander, a producer for Fuller’s 2013-2015 NBC series Hannibal, was hired as showrunner for Season 2 with Gaiman’s full endorsement.
Me? What am I doing? Oh, just hanging out with gods and mortals at the House on the Rock. Why, yes, that is the Biggest Carousel in the World. Nothing special. (YES, IT WAS AMAZING. YES, IT WAS AS AMAZING AS YOU WOULD THINK.) @GodsOnAmazon @AmericanGodsSTZ pic.twitter.com/BhLEPLTp7d
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 30, 2018
Gaiman is currently showrunner for the series adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens for Amazon and BBC. Along with Fuller and Green, Gillian Anderson also exited the show and will not be reprising her role as Media in Season 2. Viewers will have to wait until some time in 2019 to see the direction Gaiman and Alexander take the series.
American Gods is adapted from Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name and was originally developed for television by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green. The show stars Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Orlando Jones as Mr. Nanyc and Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday.