If you haven’t seen “American Gods,” you can expect it to look like a mix between “John Wick” and a Tarantino movie. The first season of “American Gods” was stylish, unique, and very intense. It made waves in the industry and set new standards for its genre. The fantasy-drama show is about Shadow Moon, a part-time boxing coach, and former thief who just got out of prison. When he gets home, he finds out that his wife, whom he met in a casino he robbed and was imprisoned for, and his best friend have both died. The autopsy shows that the two people who died were in a bad place when they did. He learns about the Gods and Goddesses who live on earth and hide in plain sight by giving vague excuses from the main character, Mr. Wednesday.
American Gods Season 4
Starz hasn’t ordered a fourth season of American Gods, and even though there were signs that the fantasy show might be renewed, the show has been officially canceled. At the end of season 3, both literally and figuratively, a dark storm was on the way. The only thing that was less clear than what would happen to Shadow Moon and whether or not the Old Gods and New Gods would finally go to war was whether or not the show would get a fourth and final season. But the gods have spoken, and it doesn’t look good for American Gods.
To say that making American Gods has been difficult would be an understatement. The first season of the show came out in 2017, and both critics and Neil Gaiman fans loved it. Unfortunately, fights between the showrunners and the studio over the budget and the creative direction of the show led to a lot of delays and the firing of a number of producers and actors. Even though season 3 of American Gods was probably the most stable season to date, Marilyn Manson was fired from the show after multiple abuse claims.
Why was American Gods Season 4 canceled?
Even though the first season of American Gods got a lot of attention for its bold fantasy world and star-studded cast, the show was later hurt by drama behind the scenes. The original showrunners, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, were fired while they were in the middle of planning the new spinoff. According to reports, they had a fight with the company Fremantle over the show’s budget.
The brace was replaced by Jesse Alexander, but unfortunately, things did not get better after that. Instead, the show only got rougher on the way back to our defenses. As was widely reported at the time, the second season of American Gods was held up because of problems between Fremantle and US broadcaster Starz over an increasing budget and last-minute rewrites ( via The Hollywood Journalist). When the second season of “Immolation” finally came out, it got less than stellar reviews, and many critics thought the show had gotten worse.
American Gods Season 4 Cast
- Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon
- Emily Browning as Laura Moon
- Crispin Glover as Mr. World
- Bruce Langley as the Technical Boy/Quantum Boy
- Yetide Badaki as Bilquis
- Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney
- Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday
- Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy
- Mousa Kraish as the Jinn
- Omid Abtahi as Salim
- Demore Barnes as Mr. Ibis
- Ashley Reyes as Cordelia
Recurring
- Gillian Anderson as the Goddess Media
- Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya
- Peter Stormare as Czernobog
- Chris Obi as Mr. Jacquel
- Betty Gilpin as Audrey
- Beth Grant as Jack
- Kahyun Kim as the New Goddess New Media
- Sakina Jaffrey as Mama-Ji
- Dominique Jackson as Ms. World
- Blythe Danner as Demeter
- Iwan Rheon as Liam Doyle
American Gods Season 4 Storyline
As of the season 3 finale of American Gods, “Tears of the Wrath-Bearing Tree,” most of the novel’s story has been told. Only the climax and the end remain. The season 3 finale ended around the same time as Chapter 15 of the book. Shadow Moon was tied to the world tree Yggdrasil to stand guard over Mr. Wednesday’s body, but Mr. Wednesday’s body disappeared from the base of the tree as a big storm started to form in the distance. At the same time, Mr. World started getting ready for a war between the Old Gods and the New Gods. He thought that the Old Gods would want to fight back against the New Gods for killing Wednesday.
In season 3 of American Gods, they established that Laura Moon killed Wednesday. Mr. World set it up so that Laura Moon stabbed Wednesday with Gungnir, his own spear. This, along with an expanded plotline for the goddess Bilquis and her search for Shadow’s “other” to stop a disaster, means that viewers can expect to see more of Bilquis and Laura in a series finale or TV movie if that ever happens. Fans can also anticipate seeing more of Mr. World, but no one knows who will play him or her. Audiences can also expect that Shadow’s new desire to become a god will be a big part of what happens this season, though it’s still not clear if he will really turn out to be his father’s son.
Will there be another series of American Gods happen?
Since Starz said it wouldn’t bring back American Gods for a fourth season, fans have been beginning to wonder if the show could get a new start somewhere else. On Twitter, author Neil Gaiman said, “It’s definitely not dead,” “I’m grateful to the team at Starz for the American Gods journey so far. Fremantle (who make AG) are committed to finishing the story that began in episode one, and right now we’re all just waiting to see which way forward is best and who it’ll be with.”
A spokesperson for Fremantle said (via Deadline): “Fremantle is committed to completing the epic journey that is American Gods, one of TV’s most inclusive series with the most amazing fans across the globe.” “With Neil Gaiman and this fantastic cast and crew, we are exploring all options to continue to tell this magnificent story.”
American Gods Season 4 Release Date
When the show was canceled in 2019 because of low ratings, Gaiman and showrunner Charles “Chic” Eglee were working on ideas for the fourth season, but those plans came to an abrupt end. But there are still rumors that a TV movie-style series finale or something similar may be in the works. Even though nothing new has happened, similar things have happened in the past.
For example, fans of the TV show Timeless, which was about traveling through time, rioted when NBC canceled it. The story was finally wrapped up in a movie that came out in 2012. If there is a Season 4 of American Gods or a movie that takes its place of it, it won’t happen until late 2023 or mid-2024.