American Gods is the show that can not appear to catch a rest. Season 3 has only started its pre-production phase and it’s already been hit with a few BTS dramas. American Gods was down on its luck ever because of the issues that befell it after Bryan Fuller’s departure and the show was made to obtain a new showrunner. I’m not going to rehash the facts, just know that things got ugly for some time and fans were doubting whether Season 2 would air or not.
It eventually premiered on March 10, 2019, to a very lukewarm reception. Personally, I could not stand Season 2. It felt like the string had nowhere to go but because it did not want to end after three or four seasons, it chose to tediously drag everything out much more than necessary. With the exception of Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon and the next half of Shadow’s narrative, the entirety of American Gods’ second season was filler.
And now, it seems that Season 3 could be even more difficult to stomach. Earlier this year, I had been eager to see the accession of Marilyn Manson, Danny Trejo and Iwan Rheon to the throw but today we are hit with all the sad news that Mr. Nancy, The Jinn and New Media won’t be returning, and Mr. World will no longer be played by Crispin Glover.
One of the biggest problems of Season 2 was that the hauled on storylines Bryan Fuller established that the series struggled to keep up in his absence. The Jinn (Mousa Kraish) along with also his love-struck one-night stand the series claimed was “only half of a pair of star-crossed fans,” Salim (Omid Abtahi) were victims of this. They certainly had a “star-crossed lovers” vibe after their debut in”Head Full of Snow.” But, unfortunately, the couple had nothing to do then.
They spent most of Season two running errands. They had been completely wasted, but rather than fixing whatever issues crushed their subplot, the series decided to cut them out altogether, or just the Jinn. Salim might be following.
Mousa Kraish declared via Twitter he hadn’t been asked to return for the upcoming season.
Already I see this backfiring. Not just since The Jinn became so popular so fast but since American Gods is currently out a queer Muslim character that also happened for a Jinn, a monster that virtually never appears in film or tv unless it’s a villain. In a world where audiences are getting more vocal about demanding POC representation, as well as American Gods promoting itself as a diverse collection, I don’t see this news landing nicely with fans.
Also, what the heck will Salim do now? His entire narrative revolved around The Jinn. Unless Omid Abtahi also gets the boot, so I can’t see how Salim could be involved any further.
Author Neil Gaiman, however, responded to Krish’s tweet, saying he expects to see Kraish back in Season 4, which it’s possible the Jinn will reunite one day.
Now, to Mr. Nancy, the real tragedy of this story. I don’t know about everybody else, but I totally love Mr. Nancy. I could hear the worst audiobook on the planet provided that Nancy was story it. Despite limited screentime in its freshman season, the Ghanaian trickster god, Anansi, stood out like a maniacal shining star in an impeccably fashionable suit. His scenes were always brilliant and in addition to this, he gave a voice to the black people descended from the slaves who attracted him over to America.
His story in Season 2 was hauled on pointlessly for many episodes and today, he’s been removed from the series entirely. Actor Orlando Jones disclosed the news in a video posted on Twitter.
Jones claimed he’d been fired since new showrunner Charles ‘Chic’ Eglee determined that his character sent “the wrong message for black America” along with his”get sh** done” attitude. However, in a response announcement published to Entertainment Weekly, the American Gods spokesperson claimed that Nancy was removed from the series because his character isn’t featured in the part of the publication they are adapting.
“The storylines of American infantry have continually evolved and shifted to reflect the intricate mythology of the origin material. Mr. Jones’ choice wasn’t picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, isn’t featured in the part of the publication we are focusing on in season 3. Several new characters, a lot of which have already been announced, will be introduced into Shadow Moon’s world which will further contribute to the show’s legacy among the most diverse series on tv.”
I can’t argue with the announcement, but as somebody who read the book, I will affirm that the series has never been exact with its own adaptation. They have expanded several roles, upgraded characters to match the modern age, transformed several plotlines and even generated original characters. When did they suddenly get so interested in after the publication word-for-word?
Meanwhile, there has been no explanation as to why Kahyun Kim as New Media has been cut, but Glover’s replacement was described as a change, “update”, of today’s world. He’ll be replaced by both Dominique Jackson and Danny Trejo in a double role.
