Everything About Bryan Fuller’s ‘American Gods’ is ‘S— Hot,’ Says Neil Gaiman

A few minor filming snags have kept a first look at Starz and Bryan Fuller’s adaptation of American Gods out of our hands a bit longer, but all will be worth the wait, per author Neil Gaiman. Not only is the casting apparently “s--- hot,” but Gaiman gets equally colorful describing some of the fantasy drama’s first footage.

Gaiman spoke to Digital Spy of the series’ progress, noting that he’d first met Bryan Fuller to discuss adapting the series as far back as 2014. In addition to previewing that Fuller would emphasize the concept of “belief” as much as Gaiman’s original allegory for the immigrant experience, Gaiman teased his overwhelming excitement for the adaptation thus far, even without a single completed episode:

He and Michael Green have been writing these really powerful scripts, the casting is s--- hot… and the footage that I’ve been seeing is also s--- hot. They are shooting the first three episodes at once, which is incredibly frustrating if you’re me and they’ve now been shooting for three weeks or whatever and there’s still not one complete episode.

But it’s looking amazing. It’s got that thing where the production designer and the director and Bryan all have a vision … It’s definitely hyper-real, and it’s gorgeous, and I’m so looking forward to seeing a rough cut of something … when they finish one!

In addition to Pablo Schreiber stepping in for Sean Harris, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Jonathan Tucker as Low-Key Lyesmith, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis and Bruce Langley as “Technical Boy,” Gods features The 100 star Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane as Mr. Wednedsay and Emily Browning as Shadow’s wife Laura Moon.

For those unfamiliar with Sandman creator Neil 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.

Hannibal creator Fuller and Heroes alum Michael Green will write and and showrun the series, with Gaiman acting as EP (and writing a few episodes), produced by FremantleMedia North America. As with Hannibal, David Slade will also direct episodes (including the pilot), as well as produce.

We’ll hear plenty more in the coming months, but what other glowing praise might we expect from Starz and Fuller’s adaptation of American Gods?