With the premiere of Starz’s American Gods fast approaching, the cast and crew of the hotly-anticipated Neil Gaiman adaptation took part in a special panel at SXSW, during which show creator Bryan Fuller revealed that Emily Browning will be pulling double duty; in addition to her previously announced role as Laura Moon, she will also be portraying the character of Essie Tregowan.
“Emily also plays Essie Tregowan, and those who have read the book, Essie was one of [co-writer] Michael Green and I’s favorite stories in the book,” said Fuller (via Variety). “It’s essentially the tale of how Mad Sweeney made it to America. And we were talking about casting that role, and as we were in that conversation, Michael said, ‘Oh, we should just cast Emily in this role.’ And then we went to talk to Emily, and it was like, ‘So, the Essie episode’ — she was like, ‘Have you cast that actor yet? Because I think I should play her.’ And we were like, ‘Well, that just worked out well.’”
SEE ALSO: New images from Starz’s American Gods TV series
American Gods posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
American Gods features a cast that includes Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith, Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vecherrnyaya, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, Chris Obi as Anubis, Gillian Anderson as Media, Kristen Chenoweth as Easter, Corbin Bernsen as Vulcan, Mousa Kraish as The Jinn, and Jeremy Davies as Jesus. It is set to premiere on April 30th.
