American Gods - Season 3
Starz, meanwhile, released a statement in response saying: "Mr. Jones' option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within season three."
American Gods - Season 3
Best known for playing Game of Thrones' Ramsey Bolton, British actor Iwan Rheon will play a character described by Starz as "a charming, good-natured leprechaun" who finds himself "swept back into our world of gods, luck, and magic."
Like a number of other shows, American Gods came to a premature end when Starz pulled the plug on the show after three seasons. The third season came to an end without finishing the story, but despite the cast and crew saying at the time they would still try to conclude the story with a limited series or a feature length movie finale, there has been no word on anything like that happening.
MR. X was the lead VFX vendor for American Gods season 3, delivering 790 shots between its Toronto, Montreal and Bangalore locations. Matt Whelan, VFX Supervisor, and Adnan Ahmed, VFX Producer, led the over 200-person MR. X team through the 12-month production, working and collaborating closely alongside overall VFX Producer, Robin Nozetz.
American Gods season 3's cliffhanger ending sees Shadow Moon make the ultimate sacrifice for Mr. Wednesday, but is this really the end of the line for Shadow? The future of American Gods is now uncertain after Starz opted to cancel the series, but the producers remaining optimistic that it will continue elsewhere. If American Gods season 4 does happen, there's considerably more story from Neil Gaiman's original novel left to tell.
After the New Gods made Shadow a wanted man at the end of American Gods season 2, he spent much of season 3 lying low in the small town of Lakeside. Meanwhile, Shadow's late wife Laura Moon returned from the dead more determined than ever to get her revenge on Mr. Wednesday, and cut a deal with the New Gods in order to kill him with his own weapon, Gungnir. With Mr. Wednesday dead, Shadow decides to fulfil the promise he made to his father and hold a vigil for him by hanging from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, for nine days. It's an ordeal that would kill a mortal, but which Shadow believes it could be the key to unlocking his own potential as a god.
Meanwhile, Technical Boy's search for the reason behind his disruptive glitches culminates in the sub-basement of the building where the New Gods have been creating Shard, a sinister "state of the art life management system" designed to bring the world under the New Gods' thrall. As Technical Boy defies Mr. World, Bilquis works to save Shadow from Mr. Wednesday's plans for him. Here's a breakdown of the biggest moments and mysteries in American Gods season 3's ending, and how the story could continue in season 4 if the show is saved from its cancellation.
Unlike Odin, who survived his hanging from Yggdrasil, Shadow dies a violent death when the branches of the World Tree pierce his body. He wakes up on an airplane with Mr. Wednesday, who explains that they are in a place somewhere between life and death. Mr. Wednesday then jumps out of the plane in a symbolic escape from death, while Shadow is left trapped helplessly in his seat. Back on Earth, just in case there was any doubt, Mr. Ibis confirms that Shadow is dead as his body is pulled into the embrace of Yggdrasil. However, given the tricky nature of the gods, there's more than one way that Shadow could be brought back to life.
Shadow Moon might know a thing or two about con artistry, but his father has been in the game a lot longer. During their final conversation, Mr. Wednesday reveals that he began planning his son's sacrifice before Shadow was even born. By the 20th century there were almost no true believers in the Norse gods left in America; the New Gods were on the rise, and the powers of the Old Gods had dwindled. To reverse this, Mr. Wednesday plotted to have a half-mortal son who would one day hang himself on Yggdrasil in a sacrifice human dedicated to Odin: a single act of worship powerful enough to restore Wednesday to his former glory.
Though American Gods has been broadly faithful to Gaiman's novel, there are a number of significant changes - including an expanded role for Bilquis. Her story in season 3 is entwined with the introduction of the Orishas, a pantheon of spirits from the religion of the Yoruba people, who brought their gods with them when they were trafficked to America as slaves. The Orishas are first seen at the start of American Gods season 3, episode 4, "The Unseen." In this Coming To America story, a slave working in a cotton field calls out to the Orishas for help and four of them appear: Chango, a spirit of power and war; Oshun, a spirit of love and purity; Yemoja, the spirit of water; and Aye, a spirit who represents the earth itself. Later in the season it's revealed that Bilquis was originally one of the Orishas as well, but forgot her original identity when she was transformed into the Queen of Sheba by the belief and worship of her people.
In American Gods season 3, Technical Boy rebelled against Mr. World's hold over him, growing increasingly unstable while also discovering greater strength within himself. While attempting to get to the bottom of the glitches he learned that the key to troubleshooting them was something called "Artifact One." In American Gods' season 3 finale, Technical Boy reaches the sub-basement where Artifact One is located and is disappointed to discover that it's something that seems quite untechnical - a rock. When he grabs hold of it, however, he experiences a vision of innovations dating back to the early days of humanity, including the first atom bomb, the discovery of electricity, and the invention of the printing press. The very first thing he sees is the rock in his hand being struck to create sparks that light a fire.
If Artifact One is the flint used to create the first man-made fire, then Technical Boy's original identity could be Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. This would fit with Technical Boy's petulant, sneering attitude, as Prometheus traditionally represents not only humanity's irrepressible (and often reckless) pursuit of knowledge, but also defiance of the gods.
Mr. World's exposition about Technical Boy's past is also a clue to Mr. World's own identity. Though his name is left a mystery in American Gods' season 3 finale, between his cryptic final words and his penchant for changing his appearance it's possible to piece together who "Mr. World" really is. As revealed in Gaiman's novel, World is actually the Norse god Loki, who is known for his acts of mischief and trickery and frequently uses shape-shifting to achieve his goals.
A more subtle clue to this identity is the song that Mr. World whistles as he leaves. It's the same song that Laura Moon kept hearing in Purgatory earlier in the season, and which was revealed to be "Schwieger's Requiem of Balder." In Norse mythology, Balder was Odin's son and was immune to any injury, so the other gods made a game of throwing things at him just to watch them bounce off harmlessly. In one of his most malevolent acts, Loki tricked the blind god Hodr into throwing a branch of mistletoe at Balder, knowing it was the one thing that could hurt him. Baldur died, and as punishment for his crime Loki was sentenced to spend the rest of eternity in a cave, bound to a rock by his sons' entrails, while a serpent dripped venom on his face.
American Gods may have been canceled by Starz, but Gaiman (who also serves as an executive producer) has said that the show is "definitely not dead," and production company Fremantle has stated "we are exploring all options to continue to tell this magnificent story." Deadline reports early rumors that either Amazon or Netflix could potentially pick up American Gods for a fourth season; Amazon already distributes the show internationally, and Netflix is developing a TV series based on another of Gaiman's novels, The Sandman. While American Gods' struggling ratings on Starz presumably led to the decision to cancel the series, it could find a bigger audience by moving to one of these major streaming services.
Gaiman has said that the original plan for American Gods was to adapt the story across five seasons. Between the Starz cancelation and criticisms of the show's pacing, however, it might be better if American Gods season 4 completely wraps up the story and brings it to a satisfying conclusion.
It was up to Jesse Alexander to keep the production going, but the new showrunner was also fired before that season ended, following creative power struggles between Alexander, Starz executives, and Gaiman himself. This meant that even before 2020, American Gods had already suffered a long two-year hiatus between its two first seasons, with plenty of shifting of personnel behind-the-scenes.
Despite these conflicts, the show managed to put on a pretty entertaining first season. Unfortunately, this would not be the case going forward. A pretty lackluster sophomore season also saw the ouster of Orlando Jones and Mousa Kraish, much to my disappointment.
I recently had the opportunity to sit with Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon) and Yetide Badaki (Bilquis). I was able to ask for their elevator pitch to bring lapsed fans back for season 3 of the show. Whittle had a refreshingly honest reply.
Whittle went on to describe the time that show runner Chic Eglee and author Neil Gaiman had together at the outset of the season and how it really made a difference in the character interactions and journeys.
Technical Boy, already an enigma this season, becomes a bit more complicated as a therapy session with himself (or rather Bilquis posing as a rendering of his subconscious) reveals that emotions are nothing new to the humanoid. What exactly is Tech? His origin story is due for telling and we are starting to grow more impatient each week.
Earlier this week the third season of American Gods officially concluded on Starz and like previous batches of episodes it's unclear if the show will continue. As viewers know the season finale took a surprise twist and revealed that Ian McShane's Mr. Wednesday had pulled a fast one on Ricky Whittle's Shadow Moon, who seemingly died and was consumed by the world tree. Readers of Neil Gaiman's original novel however will recall that these very events took place in the book, and Gaiman himself (who is still heavily involved in the show) said it would be maddening if they didn't get the opportunity to continue that story. 041b061a72