'American Gods' Will Feature a Slightly Different Shadow Moon
The much-awaited "American Gods" television adaptation has fans of Neil Gaiman's masterpiece excited to see Shadow Moon brought to life.
However, fans might want to know that this version of the beloved character to be played by "The 100" alum Ricky Whittle might be a bit different than its book counterpart.
In an interview with Deadline, Whittle said that there is definitely pressure in adapting a fan-favorite novel like "American Gods" that developed a growing fan following ever since it hit the shelves almost two decades ago.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Sixteen years' worth of fandom craving an adaptation, so you felt the pressure to deliver what they have imagined," the actor admitted.
"But everyone's imagination is limitless, budgetless and individual, so we had to come as close as we could get," he went on to say about how the "American Gods" series fares.
In preparing for the role of Shadow, which his co-star Ian McShane believes is the "most difficult part" since the character is "the eyes of the audience," Whittle naturally started reading the novel.
However, executive producers Bryan Fuller and Michael Green found it best to just stop him and pointed out that they are "not recreating the book."
"In the book, Shadow Moon is stoic, and internal monologue is abundant. You don't want to watch a man think every week, so we had to create more layers. He's more vocal, asks more questions," Whittle explained.
That being said, "American Gods" is changing Shadow a bit to be fit for a television series. How modified the character will be remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, an inaccurate adaptation of the story is the least of the worries of fans since Gaiman himself was involved in the development process and was keen on sticking as close to the book as possible.
In fact, "American Gods" will treat fans with more time with the characters whose stories were not fully fleshed out in the book.
Gaiman had a lot of content that did not make the final version of his novel and he found it best to incorporate them in the series instead. Some of the characters to be further explored are Laura Moon (Emily Browning) and Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber).
"American Gods" will premiere Sunday, April 30 on Starz.
