‘American Gods’: Starz Sets Premiere Date, Gives First Look

American Gods, the new Starz series adapted from Neil Gaiman’s contemporary fantasy novel, will have its TV bow on Sunday, April 30 at 9pm ET/PT. And from this first-look key art, clouds and strangeness are heading this way.

Before the TV premiere of the eight-episode series, produced by FremantleMedia North America, American Gods will make a public debut at the SXSW festival on March 11. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with showrunners and cast including Bryan Fuller, Michael Green, Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Pablo Schreiber, Crispin Glover, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Orlando Jones, Jonathan Tucker and Betty Gilpin.

The logline: American Gods pits Old Gods against New Gods, with the ancient mythological ones fearing irrelevance as their believers die off or are seduced by the money, technology, and celebrity offered by the younger deities. Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) is an ex-con who, left adrift by the recent death of his wife, becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to conman Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). But in truth, Mr. Wednesday is a powerful old deity, on a cross-country mission to build an army and reclaim his lost glory.

The series was adapted from Gaiman’s 2001 novel, with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green serving as the show’s writers and showrunners. David Slade directed the pilot and additional episodes, with FMNA’s Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk on board as executive producers along with Fuller, Green, Slade, Adam Kane and Neil Gaiman. Senior Vice Presidents of Original Programming Marta Fernandez and Ken Segna are the Starz executives in charge of American Gods.

In addition to Whittle and McShane, American Gods stars Emily Browning, Pablo Schreiber, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover and Orlando Jones. Additional cast members include Gillian Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jonathan Tucker, Cloris Leachman, Peter Stormare, Chris Obi, Demore Barnes, Corbin Bernsen and Mousa Kraish.

American Gods is produced by FremantleMedia North America, with Starz retaining all network pay TV and SVOD rights, as well as certain DVD distribution rights in the US and Canada. FremantleMedia is distributing the series in all other media worldwide.

The SXSW screening kicks off at 11 am CT at the Vimeo Theater in the Austin Convention Center.