Starz preemptively pleased fans when it enlisted Ian McShane to lead its American Gods adaptation as the charming, manipulative Wednesday, with The 100’s Ricky Whittle set to play the questing parolee Shadow Moon, who sides with him in the war of old gods versus new. Now we know who will dare oppose McShane’s Wednesday (to their own detriment): Crispin Glover has been cast as one of the New Gods. Glover, who was recently seen attempting to lead an uprising on History’s Texas Rising, will play Mr. World, the “seemingly omniscient leader” of the New Gods group, who will reportedly make more trouble for him than his enemies.
Appropriately enough, Starz has also announced that Kingdom’s Jonathan Tucker will play Low-Key Lyesmith, Shadow Moon’s flame-haired (and rather obviously-named) confidante. The Parenthood alum recently had memorable turns on Hannibal (where he first worked with Bryan Fuller) and Justified, the latter of which saw him waxing philosophical (and creepy) about hats and such, though that’s nothing compared to what Low-Key theorizes. If you’ve read Neil Gaiman’s book, you know how the characters’ stories converge, but it remains to be seen how well Glover and Tucker will complement each other.
The show’s other gods and (wo)men include Whittle as the aforementioned Shadow Moon, Legend’s Emily Browning as Laura Moon, and Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation’s Sean Harris as Mad Sweeney. Filming on American Gods starts next week.