American Gods: Neil Gaiman calls ‘turmoil’ overblown
By Shawn Lealos
There was a lot of turmoil between the end of the first season and second season of American Gods.
After season 1, showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green left the project due to budgetary restraints as well as a conflict with Gaiman on creative ideas.
Jesse Alexander replaced them, but his work was not satisfactory for Starz and he was removed from his position — but not fired. The rumors indicate that he was not fired to keep his removal from seeming like American Gods was spiraling out of control.
According to Gaiman, it wasn’t and the entire turmoil was overblown.
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In an interview with Collider, Gaiman said that there have been replacements at showrunner but this is not new or groundbreaking in Hollywood. He pointed out that things that happened on Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue made the Ameican Gods changes seem like nothing.
Of course, there was no internet then, so people didn’t hear about them when they happened. In today’s world of social media, Gaiman said people told him they thought it was canceled, which was far from the truth.
"“A showrunner came, and a showrunner left. That’s not even an unusual thing. Given the slightly hysterical tenor of some of the reporting, and naming no names, but the Hollywood Reporter should have been ashamed of themselves.”"
As a matter of fact, Starz renewed it for a third season with yet another new showrunner in Charles Eglee, the man who co-created Murder One and Dark Angel.
While there are still seven episodes to go for American Gods’ second season, there is hope that things improve. The first episode really lacked a lot of the magic that the first season and some are blaming that on not having a showrunner there to really direct it, especially considering the magical touch that Fuller brought to the first season.
Next. American Gods season 2 to be 'bigger, darker, stranger'. dark
Neil Gaiman also admitted that the characters are different than what he imagined (Media changed drastically this season), but that is a good thing for him. He said that he loves that it is new and fresh and loves watching these characters go off in different directions.
American Golds airs on Sunday nights on Starz.