Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys Set for Amazon Series (Without Orlando Jones)

Despite sputtering out within the two seasons earlier than its cancellation after season three, Starz’s live-action American Gods adaptation was one of many community’s first spectacular feats of style storytelling that, no less than initially, had the promise of paving the best way for extra tales in a world the place gods and monsters walked amongst mortals and, often, went to warfare. That sequence could also be over, however certainly one of its key characters is about to expertise a second form of life by means of a brand new Amazon present.

Amazon Studios has introduced that an Anansi Boys sequence is presently in growth as a part of Neil Gaiman’s general deal on the studio. Like the novel, Anansi Boys will inform the story of Charlie and his brother Spider, the sons of Anansi whose lives are deeply interconnected in ways in which neither of them totally grasp. Though Amazon’s press launch concerning the sequence mentions Gaiman’s American Gods novel, it very conspicuously ignored any reference to Starz’s adaptation. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Orlando Jones, who portrayed Anansi on American Gods’ first two seasons, is not going to be reprising the position.

In a blog post about the new series, Gaiman recalled how the concept that would ultimately turn into Mr. Nancy first got here to him whereas engaged on Neverwhere with co-creator Lenny Henry, who additionally based the manufacturing firm behind the sequence. Though Gaiman initially got down to write a horror movie telling the story about two Black brothers whose father was a deity, his concepts have been ultimately integrated into American Gods’ Mr. Nancy, the novel’s spin on Anansi, the trickster deity featured in lots of Ghanaian and different Akan folktales.

Gaiman defined how, after penning Anansi Boys—a standalone novel with connections to American Gods that explored the lives of Anansi and his sons Fat Charlie and Spider—there was some curiosity from an unnamed director who wished to safe the rights for an adaptation. However, the director wished to make all the lead characters white, and so nothing got here of that potential undertaking, and growth on any Anansi Boys adaptation stalled. But that modified when Gaiman met producer Hilary Bevan Jones and RED’s Richard Fee, who have been each eager on working to inform the Anansi Boys Gaiman had envisioned. “Somewhere around 2016 I agreed to work on it to help it get made, but we all knew that we would have to be patient as I was writing and making Good Omens,” Gaiman stated. “Amazon had loved making Good Omens, and were blown away by the viewing figures and reaction to it, and wanted to make more things with me, so Endor [Productons] and RED now had a place to make it for.”

In addition to co-showrunning with Douglas Mackinnon, Gaiman will write the primary and final of Anansi Boys’ six episodes. Lenny Henry will each govt produce and write on the sequence, together with Kara Smith, Racheal Ofori, and Arvind Ethan David. There’s no phrase on when Anansi Boys will air, however capturing for the sequence is ready to start out in Scotland this 12 months, and it’ll additionally do some filming in South Africa. Though it will have been nice to see Starz’s live-action Anansi stay on in American Gods’ non secular successor, a clear break from the opposite sequence may give the brand new sequence an opportunity to correctly reintroduce itself to audiences—presenting the story it’s primarily based on as its personal story price diving into when the present ultimately hits Amazon Prime.

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