So maybe she isn’t going to be the new Bond (though I can dream), but we have been blessed by a lot of Gillian Anderson on our screens lately. Last year she followed up Hannibal’s final run with a return to The X-Files, and also starred in the Netflix series The Fall, along with a small role in Lifetime’s excellent War & Peace miniseries. Now, Starz has announced she will be appearing in their upcoming series American Gods, which Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller will be co-showrunning alongside Michael Green.

According to a press release,

Anderson will play Media, the mouthpiece for the New Gods, functioning as their public face and sales representative, by taking the form of various iconic celebrities. She lives off the attention and worship that people give to screens-to their laptops, their TVs, to their iPhones in their hands while they watch their TVs. Ever the perky spokesperson, and always in control, she spins stories in whatever direction best suits her.”


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Image via Fox

The role sounds perfect for Anderson, but then again, what role doesn’t? She plays every character with aplomb.

The production, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel, has set the majority of its cast, though there was a recent swap out with Orange Is the New Black’s Pablo Schreiber (better to forget about The Brink) taking over for Sean Harris as Mad Sweeney. Harris left the production for personal reasons, and while he definitely physically fit the part of the “a down on his luck leprechaun, who is having a hard time understanding how he lost his charm and way,” Schreiber will surely find his own unique interpretation of the character.

The story, which tells the tale of a war between gods of the old world and new (the new gods representing things like drugs, celebrity, and technology), stars The 100’s Rick Whittle as Shadow Moon, an ex-con who becomes the bodyguard of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), a mysterious traveler.

As we reported recently, other (stellar) cast members include Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, the ancient goddess of love, Bruce Langley as the new god Technical Boy, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith, Cloris Leachman as a guardian sister of the constellations named Zorya Vechernyaya, Peter Stormare as Slavic god of darkness Czernobog, Chris Obi as Egyptian god Anubis, and Mousa Kraish as The Jinn, a mythic fire creature. “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.”

American Gods is set to air on Starz in 2017.


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Image via Starz
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Image via Starz

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