'American Gods' Spoilers: First Look at Mr. Nancy Revealed, 'Anansi' Spinoff Possible
As the much-awaited premiere of "American Gods" draws closer, Starz hypes the Neil Gaiman adaptation with promotional images showing some of the characters.
The network treated fans with a first look at Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy, one of Mr. Wednesday's (Ian McShane) old friends who Shadow (Ricky Whittle) will meet in their journey.
Mr. Nancy is the human incarnation of the African trickster god, Anansi. Much like in the book by Gaiman, he will make his entrance in "American Gods" via a "Coming to America" vignette.
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Vanity Fair reports that these vignettes, which will detail how the characters reached America, will be used as cold opens in "American Gods."
Spoiler Alert! The following contains some plot details from "American Gods." Read at your own discretion.
It was revealed by the publication that Mr. Nancy's "Coming to America" intro saw Jones explore various accents and dialects as he painted a picture of the African and African-American experience.
"Because Anansi is a trickster god, for me, his speech definitely had to have some African element to it — some patois," the actor explained.
"It was key that at certain moments, particularly when communicating on a slave ship full of Africans who are soon to be sold at market, he [communicates] in a tone that is familiar to them. That's just the nature of communication," he went on to say.
Fans of Gaiman's work know that Mr. Nancy is also a subject of another book of his titled "Anansi Boys." Jones revealed that "American Gods" showrunners Michael Green and Bryan Fuller are looking to make a spinoff inspired from that novel.
"All I know for sure is that when Michael and Bryan had called me and asked me about playing the character and walked me through what they were thinking, part of the discussion at that time was Anansi Boys, and that they wanted to spin it off and pursue that character," he explained.
However, it looks like it is too early to think about now. "American Gods" is all about simply introducing all these characters and worlds first. Jones did say that he is willing to do the spinoff given the chance.
"American Gods" premieres Sunday, April 30, on Starz.
