Neil Gaiman To Play Essential Role In ‘American Gods’ Starz Adaptation


With one of the largest and most devoted fan bases of any modern fantasy author, film adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s works tend to be tentatively received by lovers of the books. American Gods, one of Neil’s most acclaimed novels, has been under intense scrutiny from this said group of admirers since Starz first announced that it would be producing a series based on the prize-winning piece of fiction.

Some of those Gaiman devotees might be relieved by he newest news to emerge about the American Gods project. Instead of Neil’s story being told solely through the words of Bryan Fuller, the author will be joining the author to write a few episodes of the series, Fuller told Collider before receiving a Saturn Award for his canceled NBC show Hannibal.

“We are cranking away. We’ve got the first two scripts written already. It’s wonderful to be working with Neil Gaiman.”

While these remarks could easily be construed to mean that Bryan is just exited to be using Gaiman as source material, Vantiy Fair reported that the writer later clarified that Neil would indeed be shaping part of the script on his own.

“Neil Gaiman is going to be writing episodes of the show. It’s going to have scope, as it should.”

Neil himself, who has been hesitant to allow his work to be brought to the visual medium before, gave his blessing to the project when it was first announced by Starz, stated a press release.

“I am thrilled, scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation. The team that is going to bring the world of American Gods to the screen has been assembled like the master criminals in a caper movie: I’m relieved and confident that my baby is in good hands. Now we finally move to the exciting business that fans have been doing for the last dozen years: casting our Shadow, our Wednesday, our Laura…”

Neil Gaiman’s work has been met with relative success when brought to the screen thus far. Coraline, his eerie children’s novel, was extremely well-received, and a BBC adaptation of his early novel Neverwhere has managed to amass a following. Neil’s acclaimed graphic novel series The Sandman is also set to put to the screen at the hands of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has said he plans to take as long as possible to make a faithful salute to the original.

[Image via Darryl James/Getty Images]

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