Adapted from the Neil Gaiman book, the new "American Gods" TV story focuses on convict Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is released early from prison, after his wife and best friend die in a car accident. In his post-prison life, he meets a mysterious man named Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and discovers that gods live on Earth in human form. Blending Americana, fantasy and mythology, American Gods will air on Starz in 2017. Its first trailer was just released.
Some of the big themes the show's creators plan to tackle include religion and U.S. gun crime problems.
A line from the new movie trailer is: "Seems you have a choice. Either the world is crazy, or you are."
"One of the reasons we were so excited to adapt (the book) is it hits on a lot of themes that people have passions about and that, a lot of times, shows tend to shy away from," executive producer Michael Green told Deadline.
"Not the least of which, religion, which few enough shows tackle head on, and the immigrant stories of just people come with their faiths, with their traditions, with their myths, with their beliefs, with their idiosyncrasies and then have to negotiate those against this new world they find themselves in that they came to largely on purpose and with different dreams and aspirations."
Green said they are very fortunate the book lends itself to discussing provocative topics, because they get into this idea of new gods, "which is what are the things we worship now whether passively or unintentionally?"
"And wherever you put your passions, wherever you put your time and attention, is a form of worship, whether it's technology, whether it's media, and these things that Neil really apotheosized in his book," Green said, according to Digital Spy.
Green said passions have taken on a religious zeal for a lot of people. "Taking it a little bit further, we now have a very big gun debate in our country, and we're looking at a story later on in our season where an old god has become the public face, in a manner, of people's passion for holding weaponry in their hands."
Bryan Fuller, co-executive producer, said, "There are things that are happening in America right now with the political climate and the sociological climate where we have episodes that focus on the black person's perspective of being an American, that focus on a woman's perspective of being an American, focus on a gun owner's perspective of being an American, and using those sort of hot-topic issues as a platform to have a conversation about faith and our role in the universe."
Fuller revealed the original book would cover "three to four seasons," adding: "The first season was fairly easy to arc out when we went, 'Oh, this point in the book, that's where we end the first season.'"
