Why Starz Canceled American Gods

"American Gods" may not have been the best TV show of the last 10 years, but it definitely had one of the best first seasons of the past decade. Initially overseen by Bryan Fuller of "Hannibal" and "Pushing Daisies" acclaim, the show did a riveting job of adapting Neil Gaiman's original fantasy novel right out of the gate. Sure, season 1 only covered the book's first five chapters over eight episodes, but it did so with so much style and confidence that it's hard to complain about the slow pace. The series knew exactly when and how to expand on its source material; simply put, season 1 had the sauce in a way that Netflix's TV adaptation of Gaiman's "The Sandman" comics sadly never did a few years later.

Tragically, Fuller (and his co-showrunner Michael Green) left the show after season 1 due to some budgetary strife with Starz. The series had gone significantly over budget during production on its first eight episodes; it was money well spent so far as fans were concerned, but not so much when it came to the executives who needed to justify investing so many resources into a show with less than a million weekly viewers. There were also rumors that Gaiman wasn't happy with all the changes Fuller and Green made to his book and that he had played a role in their departure.

With Fuller and Green no longer involved, the season 2 premiere saw an immediate drop in quality. It wasn't awful exactly, but the show's confident swagger was gone and replaced with a sort of dull competence. The series trudged along into a third season, the ratings in a near-constant decline, before Starz announced the party was over. Upon canceling "American Gods" in March 2021, the network put out the following statement:

"'American Gods' will not return for a fourth season. Everyone at Starz is grateful to the dedicated cast and crew, and our partners at Fremantle who brought author and executive producer Neil Gaiman's ever-relevant story to life that speaks to the cultural climate of our country."

Making production even more tumultuous behind the scenes, it was reported that the "American Gods" cast and crew were pretty loyal to Fuller and Green's vision for the show, and they were vocal about their frustration with new showrunner Jesse Alexander. This soon led to Alexander himself being replaced by the series' third showrunner, Charles "Chic" Eglee.

Whereas most of the blowback to Alexander took place behind the scenes, the backlash to Eglee became a major public story when it broke that he was the reason Orlando Jones had left the series (or rather, was fired) before season 3. Jones had memorably played the character of Mr. Nancy, a mischievous African god who responds to the racism in the U.S. with righteous anger and violence. It was a portrayal that might have made certain members of the audience uncomfortable, but it was undeniably interesting, and Mr. Nancy became a favorite among a lot of Black viewers.

Jones spoke publicly about the situation as well, claiming that Eglee told him his character was "sending the wrong message to Black America." As Jones explained further in a video he posted on social media:

"There will be no more Mr. Nancy. [...] Don't let these motherf***ers tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don't. I'm not going to name names, but the new season 3 showrunner is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he's very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy's angry, get s**t done is the wrong message for Black America. That's right. This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I'm sure he has many black BFFs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god Mr. Nancy, he'd start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?"

This was a bad look for the show going into its third season, especially since it was a series that had previously been praised for its diverse cast and well-written Black characters. A big part of that strong reputation came down to Jones himself, who had helped write the dialogue for several of the show's Black characters in season 2 and had taken on a producer role.

Due to a combination of declining ratings, behind the scenes strife, and growing fan frustration, "American Gods" was canceled before it could finish adapting its source material. At the time, however, it was reported the show could potentially wrap up its loose threads with a TV movie, not unlike what had happened with the Netflix series "Sense8" back in 2018.

Those plans never materialized, but for years after, there was still some hope the "American God" series could continue in some way. Ricky Whittle, who played protagonist Shadow Moon across all three seasons of the show, teased as much when interviewed by Bleeding Cool in February 2024. "[The show] is very much not dead." Whittle stated. "I've had discussions for about two, three years now with Neil Gaiman about taking it somewhere to finish it, to another streamer to finish the story."

This was just a few months before Tortoise published the first round of sexual assault allegations against Gaiman, followed by another (and even more damning) piece from Vulture, which further damaged his reputation and killed public appetite for projects based on his work. Indeed, Gaiman adaptations like "The Graveyard Book" and "Good Omens" have since been put on pause, and no new Gaiman adaptations have been greenlit in the meantime. So, while there may once have been some sliver of a chance that "American Gods" might get the conclusive ending fans wanted, for now, at least, it sure seems like that door has closed.