It’s Official! Starz Renews ‘American Gods’ For Third Season, Finds New Showrunner

As Deadline exclusively revealed last month, the cable gods have decided to bless American Gods with another season as Starz made it official today.

Just one week into the long awaited second season of the Ricky Whittle and Ian McShane-led series based on Neil Gaiman’s award winning 2001 novel, the Lionsgate-own premium cabler has brought Walking Dead alum Charles “Chic” Eglee on board as the new showrunner for the new season.

“Audiences continue to worship at the altar of American Gods and we are excited to be able to announce to all the true believers that there is more of this fantastical series to come,” said  Starz programming boss Carmi Zlotnik in a statement today “With Chic at the helm, the invaluable insight and contributions of Neil Gaiman and the undeniable talent of this dedicated cast and crew, we know that the show will continue to deliver on the vision and promise laid out in the novel.”

One of the primary concerns for Starz in bringing back Gods was strong viewership and a showrunner who could get the series back on the air in a far more timely fashion than the almost two years between the Season 1 and the Season 2 debuts.

Having debuted it’s second season with 722,000 sets of eyeballs in Live + 3 results, the first box was checked for the cabler. The second box seems to be already penciled in, at least if you listen to to creator of the source material.

“I’m thrilled American Gods has been renewed for a third season, and even more thrilled that I’m getting to work on it with Chic Eglee,” said EP Gaiman on Friday.

“Chic is the best partner-in-crime,” the author and Good Omens showrunner added. “We’ve been working for weeks now on the shape of the season and I’m delighted that he gets to carry the American Gods torch on to glory. Thank you to Fremantle, Starz and Amazon for having faith in the series, to Bryan, Michael and Jesse for bringing it this far, to all the cast and crew, and most of all to the viewers. It’s their love of the characters that took us to this point, and will take us on to the next chapter.”

That net chapter could be followed by a least a couple more as Gods has always been envisioned as at least a five season show, sources tell me.

Of course, the first season was run by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, who brought the project from the page to the small screen. After dust-ups with the moneymen, Fuller and Green exited stage left and Jesse Alexander was brought in as showrunner for Season 2, working closely with Gaiman. Now, it’s Chic’s turn.

Source: Read Full Article