“American Gods” Showrunner Bryan Fuller Says Series Has Two Pilots, Has “Unscripted” Scenes With Orlando Jones’ Mr. Nancy Ahead Of Starz Premiere

Ahead of the series premiere of the small screen adaptation of author Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” on Sunday, April 30, showrunner Bryan Fuller revealed a few behind-the-scenes secrets about one of the most highly anticipated shows in TVlandia.

In his interview with Den of Geek, Fuller revealed that there are actually two pilot episodes fans should look forward to. According to him, the developed two series pilots, with one in main character Shadow Moon’s (Ricky Whittle) perspective, and another from his wife, Laura Moon’s (Emily Browning) perspective, which will be introduced in episode 4.

He explained, “ What’s interesting is we start the episode with Shadow’s perspective and storyline and then in episode four, we have a new pilot. So we have essentially two pilots, one from Shadow’s point of view and one from Laura’s point of view. The Laura episode backs up to before she had even met Shadow, so we explore her life before Shadow, her relationship with him, through her death and beyond and then from that point on the stories are woven together from both of those perspectives. That was really about us feeling very strongly that we wanted to represent…”

Fuller also said audiences should expect an unscripted scene courtesy of Orlando Jones, who plays the trickster Mr Nancy, otherwise known as Old God Anansi, also a titular character in Gaiman’s other popular spin-off, “Anansi Boys.” The scene Fuller refers to is Mr Nancy’s speech to a shipful of black men slaves about what lies ahead for them in America. He said, “ There’s a line where it’s like “you don’t even know you’re black yet. You’re just people” and there’s something so powerful about how we treat each other as human beings and how easy it is to dehumanise and that’s something that we need to talk about in order to move past and heal from.”

Jones, who is a Gaiman fan, said he was actually approached by the show to play Mr Nancy after voted by fans as the most likely actor to get casted for the role for years. In a separate interview, he said viewers should expect a “relatable” show.

“It does belong to the audience, and they should have the ability to interpret the material on their own terms, be it good or bad. Because the role is to spark conversation, not to dictate narrative,” he added.