Another day, another fabulous American Gods casting story. Orlando Jones has joined the miniseries as Mr. Nancy!
The Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods has added another big name to its already impressive cast list.
The Wrap reports that none other than Orlando Jones has landed the role of Mr. Nancy, a pivotal character in the novel. Orlando Jones most recently starred as Captain Irving in Sleepy Hollow. He’s an active participant in and supporter of online fandom (most notably Supernatural), interacting with fans on Tumblr and Twitter, and even asking for fanfic recommendations.
Mr. Nancy, more commonly known as Anansi, is an African trickster god whom main character Shadow (Ricky Whittle) encounters early on in his journey of celestial discovery. It’s also worth noting that he appears in another Neil Gaiman novel, Anansi Boys, which follows the character’s children.
Related: Gillian Anderson lands key role in American Gods
In American Gods, Mr. Nancy is a great friend and ally to Shadow, and Gaiman’s novel even sees him travel with Shadow at various times in the story. Despite the late casting announcement, we hope Mr. Nancy will also feature heavily in the miniseries.
The 10-episode series is created by Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller, and also stars Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Gillian Anderson as Media, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya, and Crispin Glover as Mr. World.
12 Monkeys‘ Demore Barnes also recently joined the show as the Egyptian god Thoth, alias Mr. Ibis, who runs a funeral parlor.
Gaiman’s American Gods follows Shadow Moon, an ex-convict who travels across the country with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, recuperating from the death of his wife as he gets swept up in a literal war of the gods. The book is chock-full of mythology and anthology-style interludes, and we hope the miniseries takes time to tell some of these incredible backstories.