Last week, Sean Harris departed Starz’s American Gods series based on the Neil Gaiman novel. A statement was issued at the time citing “personal reasons,” but that left the project without its leprechaun, Mad Sweeney. Don’t worry, the adaptation is still happening. Today, in fact, brings word of his replacement, and it’s Pornstache.
A rep for FremantleMedia confirmed to us that Pablo Schreiber, who plays George Mendez on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, will replace Harris as Mad Sweeney. The Canadian-born Schreiber doesn’t physically look the part the way Harris does, but one would presume he made up for it with his acting chops. The character was initially described by Starz as “a down on his luck leprechaun, who is having a hard time understanding how he lost his charm and way. Always up for a good fight, Sweeney is never deprived while in the employment of Mr. Wednesday.”
Bryan Fuller and Michael Green act as showrunners on American Gods, which tells of a war between the old, mythological gods and the new gods of the modern world (e.g. drugs, celebrity, technology). At the center of it is Shadow Moon (played by The 100’s Ricky Whittle), who’s enlisted to be the bodyguard of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), a mysterious man who turns out to be one of the older deities.
Emily Browning plays Laura Moon, Yetide Badaki plays ancient goddess of love Bilquis, Bruce Langley plays one of the new gods named Technical Boy, Crispin Glover plays Mr World, Jonathan Tucker plays Low Key Lyesmith, Cloris Leachman plays a guardian sister of the constellations named Zorya Vechernyaya, Peter Stormare plays Slavic god of darkness Czernobog, Chris Obi plays Egyptian god Anubis, and Mousa Kraish plays a mythic fire creature called The Jinn. The producers have teased that liberties will be taken with the source material, and that some of these minor characters — especially Laura — will get larger parts.
The Wrap was the first to report the news of Schreiber’s casting.
