Bringing a second season of the Neil Gaiman-inspired series American Gods to Starz has proven to be quite a tumultuous endeavor. First showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed the project over creative and budgetary issues with production company Fremantle Media, then their replacement Jesse Alexander was "exiled" by Fremantle, again over creative differences – this time disagreements over the season finale. Alexander also had clashes with actor Ian McShane, who apparently tossed episode scripts aside in favor of coming up with his own dialogue.
Despite all the behind-the-scenes turmoil, a second season of American Gods does now exist, and a premiere date has been announced. The show will return to Starz on Sunday, March 10th at 8pm.
Based on a novel by Gaiman, American Gods stars McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Chris Obi as Anubis, Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya, Demore Barnes as Mr. Ibis, Mousa Kraish as The Jinn, Omid Abtahi as Salim, Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, Kahyun Kim as Media, Dean Winters as Mr. Town, Devery Jacobs as spiritually cynical college student / chainsaw artist Sam Black Crow, and Sakina Jaffrey as Hindu goddess of war Mama-Ji.
Season 2 has the following synopsis:
We were forged in God’s image, but the Gods are also made in ours — and in Season Two the battle moves inexorably toward crisis point as the destinies of gods and men collide. While Mr. World plots revenge for the attack against him in Season One, Shadow throws in his lot with Wednesday’s attempt to convince the Old Gods of the case for full-out war, with Laura and Mad Sweeney in tow. A council at the House on the Rock explodes into chaos, sending deities both Old and New on quests across America that will converge on Cairo, Illinois: forcing Shadow to carve out a place as a believer in this strange new world of living gods — a dark world where change demands commitment, and faith requires terrible sacrifice.
A poster for the new season can be seen below.
If you missed the first season, you'll have a chance to catch up on it when Starz airs all eight episodes again on Saturday, December 29th, starting at noon.