It is not only a question for those surveying the mass communications landscape, it is a question fans of American Gods might be asking regarding the character played by Gillian Anderson about the Starz series, currently in its third season.
American Gods author Neil Gaiman said he doesn’t know how Media might show up on the show later on. According to Gaiman’s 2001 book, the show is set in a universe where Old Gods like Odin (Ian McShane), along with also the trickster god Anansi (Orlando Jones), face irrelevancy and even death as mortals stop to worship them and a group of ascendant New Gods moves in on their turf. One of the New Gods is Anderson’s Media who, in the first season, looks in the form of Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, and David Bowie in her ability as the liaison for the likes of Mr. World (Crispin Glover).
Anderson departed the series after the first season, and Media – emerging as a reflection of celebrity-obsessed civilization – evolved to New Media (a personification of social networking ), performed with Kahyun Kim. It was a natural progression for the New Goddess, said Gaiman.
“Once I wrote the book, even when we were making season, it felt as though Media was monolithic; you can go, ‘Ah, again is the press, and look, it is represented by a Lucille Ball/Lucy Ricardo personality, who’s also somehow a newsreader, who’s additionally every icon of the press,'” he said, before adding, “By year two, everybody was going,’ We do not believe that’s what Media is right now.’ We had a fantastic notion of, ‘OK, well, then, New Media.'”
Now, Gaiman says that New Media seems “fragmented,” and is not in the third season.
How Might Media Return?
“We took a great deal of that job, and divided it up one of these sorts of social media entities which you got to observe Ms. World [Dominique Jackson] interacting with,” he stated, speaking to the third season premiere, “A Winter’s Tale.”
But Gaiman suggests that Media might change again, and return in the possible fourth season. “I think by season 4, Media might have settled and eventually become something else again, both more powerful and less powerful than it was in season 1.”
American Gods has a track record of adapting characters to remain current within its gigantic timeline, for example, Mr. World’s change from a White guy to a Black woman because, as she says in the new season premiere, “white guys are not on-trend.” So by the time American marching enters its fourth season, who knows what form Media, or press, will probably be in? Maybe she will arrive as Bite-Sized Media, or as a star TikTok video.
