The path to American Gods season 2 looked like it would be smooth, especially after Starz renewed the series just two episodes into its first season. Now, there has been an unexpected turn of events: Showrunners and executive producers Michael Green and Bryan Fuller have exited, leaving those vital roles temporarily unfilled.
News of Green and Fuller’s departure broke Wednesday, but no official reason was given. Deadline suggested that money was a factor. The first season’s budget was rumored to have already approached the rare air of Game of Thrones, with Variety’s sources indicating that each episode cost almost $10 million. Regardless of reason, though, Green and Fuller are now out the door.
As creators of the series, the two showrunners had been involved since the beginning. They worked closely with fellow executive producer Neil Gaiman, the author of the book upon which the TV series is based, with whom they seemed to have a good relationship. After news of Green and Fuller’s departure broke on Wednesday, Gaiman responded to American Gods fans’ questions on Twitter, sharing his disappointment as well as declining to reveal the reason behind their exit.
“I don’t think I can comment on that,” he wrote in response to one fan. “I’m really sorry Bryan and Michael are going: they are my friends and have terrific creative minds.”
Gaiman did also offer reassurance that the show would go on, saying season 2 was “not in question.” Alas, he won’t be stepping in to replace them. He explained that he already has a gig as showrunner on the upcoming BBC series Good Omens, and he wants to return to writing novels after that.
No, it's not true at all. I'm showrunning Good Omens in the UK until next year, then retiring from showrunning and going back to writing novels for a living. https://t.co/nsmx7OkLzK
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) November 30, 2017
Whoever takes over as showrunner has a lot of work left to do. There are still more season 2 scripts left to be written, according to Deadline, not to mention episodes to make. The good news is that more than half of the episodes have reportedly been written, so hopefully the shake-up won’t lead to long delays.
The show was expected to return in mid-2018, but it remains to be seen when it will premiere now given the major change.
Updated: We added the rumored per-episode budget.
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