Starz and FremantleMedia North America are already into production on the first season of American Gods, the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed contemporary fantasy novel, and they are still adding major cast members. Variety is reporting Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame is boarding the show as Media, a sort of supernatural publicist for the New Gods who takes the form of different celebrities.
This will be a reunion for Anderson and executive producer Bryan Fuller, with whom she worked on Hannibal. Shooting on American Gods is currently underway in Toronto, Canada and will continue in additional locations across America.
The plot of American Gods posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of mythological roots 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. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
