Anansi Boys: Whoopi Goldberg to play Bird Woman, God of Birds in Neil Gaiman series

Whoopi Goldberg recently played Mother Abagail, a character who has a close connection with God, in the new mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. Now she’s set to play a god in Amazon’s mini-series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2005 fantasy novel Anansi Boys (buy a copy at THIS LINK). TV Line reports that Goldberg has joined the cast of Anansi Boys to play Bird Woman, “the God of Birds and one of the show’s key antagonists”.

Goldberg’s co-stars will include Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty) as Anansi / Mr. Nancy; Malachi Kirby (Roots) in the dual roles of Anansi’s sons Charlie and Spider; Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn (Lovers Rock) as Rosie Noah, a teacher and fiancée to Charles “Fat Charlie” Nancy; Grace Saif (13 Reasons Why) as as Detective Constable Daisy Day, “who finds herself deep into several intersecting police cases, including a murder”; CCH Pounder (Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) as Mrs. Higgler, “the matriarch of her clan and an old family friend of Charlie’s”; Jason Watkins (The Crown) as Graham Coats; and Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) as Maeve Livingstone. L. Scott Caldwell (Lost), Joy Richardson (Small Axe), and Lachele Carl (Doctor Who) are in there as well.

Anansi Boys will center on

Charlie Nancy, a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father. But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that his father was Anansi: trickster god of stories. And he learns that he has a brother. Now his brother, Spider, is entering Charlie’s life, determined to make it more interesting, but also making it a lot more dangerous.

Here’s some more information on Charlie and Spider:

The character of Charles Nancy, sometimes known as Fat Charlie (it was his father’s nickname for him – he’s not fat), is described as awkward, stressed, engaged to be married, and working at a job he hates for a man he hates. He is as normal as it is possible to be – at least until he learns that his father was a god, and that he has a magical brother he does not know about. Spider is that brother. Described as cocky, self-assured, magical, superpowered, utterly amoral, and perhaps a bit of a monster.

Gaiman serves as showrunner on Anansi Boys alongside Douglas Mackinnon, who directed all six episodes of the Gaiman series Good Omens‘ first season. Gaiman also wrote the Anansi Boys scripts with Lenny Henry, Arvind Ethan David, Kara Smith, and Racheal Ofori. Gaiman, Henry, and Mackinnon are executive producing the show with Hilary Bevan Jones, Richard Fee, and Hanelle M. Culpepper.

The first episode is directed by Culpepper, whose credits include Star Trek: Picard. Jermain Julien (Grantchester) and Azhur Saleem (Doctor Who) are also on board to direct episodes. Anansi Boys will have a total of six episodes.

Anansi Boys is being produced by Amazon Studios, the Blank Corp., Endor Productions, RED Production, and Paul Frift. Filming is taking place in Scotland.