Despite losing showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green last year, American Gods has made plenty of progress on season two. Neil Gaiman, who wrote the fantasy novel that was adapted for Starz, is now overseeing the series with Hannibal and Star Trek: Discovery writer Jesse Alexander. So, that solves that problem, sort of—but what about finding someone to take over for Gillian Anderson as Media, or Kristin Chenoweth as Easter?
A new press release from the cable network answers one of those questions, and a couple of other ones that fans of the book have probably had since the show was announced. Shameless alum Kahyun Kim is set to play New Media, who’s more of a successor to Media than she is a replacement for Anderson. New Media is “the goddess of global content — and in this age, a cyberspace chameleon, who is also a master of manipulation.” It sounds like, rather than rely on Media’s ability to change forms, Gaiman and Alexander came up with a whole new character, which might be the best way to go.
Also joining American Gods season two is Dean Winters as Mr. Town, one of Mr. World’s (Crispin Glover) underlings, who’s tasked with keeping up with Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle). Winters avoided joining factions outright when he was on Oz, which makes the decision to play a New Gods devotee an interesting one. Finally, we have Devery Jacobs playing Sam Black Crow, a “spiritually cynical” college student (is there any other kind?) who joins Shadow on his trip through Illinois in the book, but who might have other plans in the TV series. There’s no update on the premiere date, which is expected to fall in 2019.