It’s been over a year and a half since we last heard about the Starz show “American Gods.” Season two impressed visually, but underwhelmed with a faulty narrative, and then the show had yet another round of behind the scenes drama. Now, “American Gods” is trying to remind you that, hey, this show isn’t that bad, with a fresh new trailer for season three.
The trailer premiered during the show’s panel at the New York Comic Con, and it follows the revelation at the end of the previous season that Ian McShane‘s Mr. Wednesday/Odin is the father of Ricky Whittle‘s Shadow Moon, which would make him a god. The teaser then shows Shadow living in hiding in a remote snowy town in Wisconsin, while a whole new pantheon of gods and characters are introduced in quick flashes — including Danny Trejo as a new incarnation of Mr. World (previously portrayed by Crispin Glover), and Iwan Rheon as a leprechaun named Leon Doyle.
“American Gods” has been nothing if not controversial. Brian Fuller, who served as showrunner for the show, was fired as showrunner after only once season, then his replacement was secretly fired. Castmembers Kristin Chenoweth and Gillian Anderson left the show soon after. Then, even more drama came to the light late last year when star Orlando Jones revealed he was fired from the show, despite being asked to take additional tasks like “writing, not just Mr. Nancy, but Ibis and Salim and the Jinn and Sam Black Crow and Shadow Moon and all of the characters of color who weren’t written.”
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At the time, the producers issued a statement claiming that Jones and other actors were not fired, but instead they changed the casting because the source material changes characters at this point in the story.
Here’s the official synopsis for season three of “American Gods,” which is set to premiere sometime next year.
“American Gods” is the epic story of an inevitable war building between the Old Gods of mythology and our New Gods of technology. Whittle stars as ex-con Shadow Moon, a man pulled into the service of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, played by Ian McShane (“Deadwood”, John Wick) — only to discover that not only is his charismatic but un-trustable boss actually the Norse All-Father god Odin, he’s also…Shadow’s father.
In Season 3 Shadow angrily pushes this apparent destiny away, and settles in the idyllic snowy town of Lakeside, Wisconsin — to make his own path, guided by the gods of his black ancestors, the Orishas. But he’ll soon discover that this town’s still waters run deep, and dark, and bloody, and that you don’t get to simply reject being a god. The only choice — and a choice you have to make — is what kind of god you’re going to be.