Fresh from a long awaited return to her signature role as Dana Scully on a brand new 6-part 10th season of the Sci-Fi classic The X Files and a critically acclaimed turn in the BBC adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, actress Gillian Anderson has been announced as part of the cast in the upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s literary cult classic American Gods.
Anderson will portray “Media”, one of the new gods (in contract to the old, more traditional gods like Odin, the norse god), in the Starz produced series, which is being helmed by Bryan Fuller (Known for his work on Star Trek and Heroes) and Michael Green (Who has worked on shows such as Sex and the City, Smallville and alongside Fuller on Heroes).
American Gods has had a long and turbulent relationship with television, having been originally developed by HBO, before they left the project, and it eventually found a home at Starz. Gaiman, the acclaimed novelist who wrote the BBC Television series Neverwhere and it’s accompanying book, is said to be very heavily involved with the show.
Anderson, a longtime feminist icon thanks to her role on X Files, recently made headlines with claims she would love to be the first female James Bond after Daniel Craig left the role vacant. Earlier this year Anderson weighed in on the Hollywood equal pay debate, telling chat show host Jonathon Ross that she never negotiated her X Files contract first, instead allowing her co-star David Duchovny, who plays Fox Mulder, to negotiate his contract, and then demanding she be given an equal pay after finding out that he was paid more for the first few seasons.
Gillian Anderson will star alongside Ian McShane, who finally made his long teased appearance in Game of Thrones last night in an exciting episode that saw the return of one of the shows most beloved and long thought dead characters. McShane has been onboard to star as Mr. Wednesday in the TV show, opposite British actress Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, and Emily Browning as Laura Moon
The series is currently filming in Toronto, and is set to air on Starz early next year.
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