American Gods Renewed For Third Season With New Showrunner

Deadline has brought word that the acclaimed Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel American Gods has been renewed for a third season on the premium cable network with Charles “Chic” Eglee attached as the new showrunner.

The second season of the epic fantasy series saw a lot of developmental issues behind the scenes as original showrunners, Bryan Fuller and Howard Green, exited halfway through the writing process due to creative differences and were replaced by Gaiman and Heroes alum Jesse Alexander, only for Alexander to be fired by Starz right before production was slated to begin on the eight-episode second season and Gaiman being busy with the BBC/Amazon Prime adaptation of his novel Good Omens, which he wrote and was the showrunner on.

“Audiences continue to worship at the altar of American Gods and we are excited to be able to announce to all the true believers that there is more of this fantastical series to come,” said Starz programming boss Carmi Zlotnik in a statement today “With Chic at the helm, the invaluable insight and contributions of Neil Gaiman and the undeniable talent of this dedicated cast and crew, we know that the show will continue to deliver on the vision and promise laid out in the novel.”

Eglee is well-known for his work writing on and executive producing numerous hits including the acclaimed Showtime crime comedy Dexter, Jessica Alba’s breakout in the short-lived series Dark Angel, FX’s police drama The Shield and AMC’s long-running post-apocalyptic drama The Walking Dead. The decision to hire Eglee comes a week after the second season debuted on Starz to high ratings for the network.

“I’m thrilled American Gods has been renewed for a third season, and even more thrilled that I’m getting to work on it with Chic Eglee,” EP Gaiman said “Chic is the best partner-in-crime. We’ve been working for weeks now on the shape of the season and I’m delighted that he gets to carry the American Gods torch on to glory. Thank you to Fremantle, Starz and Amazon for having faith in the series, to Bryan, Michael and Jesse for bringing it this far, to all the cast and crew, and most of all to the viewers. It’s their love of the characters that took us to this point, and will take us on to the next chapter.”

We were forged in God’s image, but the Gods are also made in ours — and in Season Two the battle moves inexorably toward crisis point as the destinies of gods and men collide. While Mr. World plots revenge for the attack against him in Season One, Shadow throws in his lot with Wednesday’s attempt to convince the Old Gods of the case for full-out war, with Laura and Mad Sweeney in tow. A council at the House on the Rock explodes into chaos, sending deities both Old and New on quests across America that will converge on Cairo, Illinois forcing Shadow to carve out a place as a believer in this strange new world of living gods — a dark world where change demands commitment, and faith requires terrible sacrifice.

American Gods stars Ricky Whittle (The 100, Austenland) as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane (Deadwood, Ray Donovan) as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, Legend) as Laura Moon, and Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black) as Mad Sweeney. Other cast members include Yetide Badaki (Aquarius, Masters of Sex) as Bilquis, Bruce Langley (Deadly Waters) as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as Mr. World, and Orlando Jones (Madiba, Sleepy Hollow) as Mr. Nancy.