Gillian Anderson Confirmed To Join ‘American Gods’ Series


While Gillian Anderson’s name keeps coming up to be cast as the first female James Bond, the actress will be busy with a new series in the meantime. On Friday, June 3, Anderson joined the cast of the upcoming cable series, American Gods.

Anderson will reunite with Hannibal series creator Bryan Fuller for the Starz original series, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. American Gods is based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel of the same name.

Gillian Anderson, American Gods series, Neil Gaiman fantasy, Gillian Anderson Media
[Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images]
The ensemble cast already includes Ian McShane, Pablo Schreiber, Emily Browning, Jonathan Tucker, and Cloris Leachman. Anderson will star as Media, the spokeswoman for the New Gods, who usually takes the form of celebrities and public figures.

Media is described as the type of being that enjoys human attention as she serves as the New Gods “public face and sales representative,” according to IGN. Media makes sure that the public stays obsessed with their televisions, smartphones, computers, and other forms of technology to keep her relevant and in power.

American Gods is the story of a group of contemporary deities called the New Gods that want control of the American heartland from the traditional old gods, who are lead by Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and Shadow Moon (The 100’s Ricky Whittle.) Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon end up recruiting forces for their own group to prevent the New Gods from destroying them completely.

Director and producer Bryan Fuller, who first worked with Gillian Anderson when she played Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier on NBC’s Hannibal, is one of the co-creators of American Gods. Fuller and co-creator Michael Green are the series’ showrunners and will pen the first episode’s script.

Author Neil Gaiman is one of the executive producers on the series. American Gods, which is scheduled to shoot through September, will debut on the Starz network sometime in 2017.

Meantime, Anderson’s BBC series’ The Fall will air its third and final season later this year. The series started filming in Belfast back in January, with Anderson returning as Detective Inspector Stella Gibson.

Fellow Fall co-star, Jamie Dornan, will also return to the hit drama as the serial killer Paul Spector, as reported by The Independent. The Fall first aired back in 2013, and the second season ended in December, 2014.

An official date for the third season has yet to be announced. The Fall broadcasts on BBC 2 in the U.K., while Netflix streams the series at a later date.

Gillian Anderson has been in the news lately, ever since she heavily hinted that she would loved to be considered in the running to be the female James Bond. Ever since the current James Bond, Daniel Craig, expressed that he is done with the Bond franchise, people have been guessing and placing bets on who can replace Craig as the newest 007.

While today’s popular British actors such as Tom Hiddleston, Jamie Bell, Damian Lewis, and Idris Elba are at the top of the short list to play the next Bond, actresses like Anderson and ABC’s Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra have boldly stated their interest in the media that they want to be cast as a female James Bond, and not be just another Bond girl.

Gillian Anderson does have a few more projects lined up for 2016. Anderson will star in Viceroy’s House with Michael Gambon and Hugh Bonneville. The X-Files actress plays English heiress and relief worker Edwina Mountbatten in the British-Indian historical drama.

Anderson will also voice a character in the upcoming PC game Squadron 42 from Star Citizen. Anderson plays Captain MacLaren in the single-player game that’s supposed to be similar to the popular Wing Commander game.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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