Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ Finally Gets Greenlight at Starz

It’s been near of a year since we’ve heard anything from the front of Starz’s take on Neil Gaiman novel American Gods, but like the deities themselves, a formal greenlight simply lay in wait. Now, Starz has confirmed that American Gods will officially move forward, as Gaiman and writer Bryan Fuller move onto casting Shadow Moon.

For those unfamiliar with Sandman creator Gaiman’s novel, American Gods follows ex-convict Shadow Moon, who partners up with mysterious con-man Mr. Wednesday (secretly a god himself), becoming embroiled in a battle between classic mythological gods who have fallen out of style, and the “new” American gods based on greed, technology and celebrity. A few years ago, HBO had in mind to develop the drama with Tom Hanks’ Playtone, though the project eventually fell through.

Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller and Heroes alum Michael Green will write and and showrun the series, with Gaiman acting as EP, produced by FremantleMedia North America. Production will begin upon the casting of “Shadow Moon,” to which Starz has surprisingly encouraged fans to tweet suggestions to @AmericanGodsSTZ and @STARZ_Channel with the hashtag “#CastingShadow.”

Said Starz of the greenlight:

STARZ is committed to bring American Gods to its legions of fans. With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael and Neil guiding the project, we hope to create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans, who have been casting it in their minds for years. The search for Shadow begins today!

Adds Gaiman:

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…

And finally, Fuller and Green:

Almost 15 years ago, Neil Gaiman filled a toy box with gods and magic and we are thrilled to finally crack it open and play. We’re grateful to have STARZ above us and FremantleMedia at our backs as we appease the gods, American or otherwise.

Well, after such a long road through development, might American Gods finally get the adaptation it deserves? What will additional showrunning duties mean for Fuller’s Hannibal work? While we wait, get to casting Shadow Moon with suggestions at the above links!