Starz' American Gods continues its spot-on casting assignments with the announcement that Emily Browning will be playing Laura Moon. The star of such diverse films as Sucker Punch, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Sleeping Beauty, Browning will make her return to TV in the premium network's adaptation of author Neil Gaiman's award-winning work. Since her character's part in the plot is rather spoilery, we'll keep the descriptions to a minimum.

Browning joins Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle, who were cast as Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon respectively. As Laura Moon, Browning will play "Shadow Moon’s wife, who has been preparing for her husband's pending prison release.  Little does she know that she will go on an unexpected journey that leads her to an epiphany about her relationship and affords her a second chance to get things right." It sounds like Browning has a juicy part to play in this anticipated series and I, for one, can't wait to see how she handles the role. American Gods will begin shooting in April.

Image via Universal Pictures[/caption]

Here's what American Gods author Gaiman had to say about Browning:

“I've been fascinated by Emily Browning since ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. She has a challenge ahead of her: Laura is a tricky character, and the Laura on the screen is even trickier and more dangerous than the one on the page. She's going to have a wonderful time bringing Laura to life.”

Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green followed up with a spoiler-free (though certainly containing a nod to book fans) statement of their own:

“You don’t need a magical coin when you have Emily Browning. She brings a fascinating spark of life to every role she inhabits and we are tickled she will be lighting up Laura Moon and bringing her to life in more ways than one on American Gods.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the source material, here's how Starz summarizes the book:

American Gods has been translated into over 30 languages and earned numerous accolades including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel. The plot posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.