Neil Gaiman’s 2005 book Anansi Boys is officially making its way to television! The show will be a six-episode limited series and is set to start filming in Scotland later this year, Entertainment Weekly reported.
According to Entertainment Weekly, while Gaiman’s novel American Gods features iconic mythological deities such as Odin, Thoth, and the Queen of Sheba, Anansi Boys is centered around Mr. Nancy (aka Anansi), an African trickster god and his family. Mr. Nancy appears in both American Gods and Anansi Boys. However, the main focus of Anansi Boys regards Mr. Nancy’s son, Charlie, who learns the truth of his deceased father’s identity. Charlie also discovers he has a brother, whose presence makes Charlie’s life significantly more complicated and dangerous.
Although American Gods has connections to Anansi Boys (and vice versa), the two are still separate works in their own rights. Anansi Boys is not exactly a spin-off from American Gods. Winter is Coming stated that in a blog post, Gaiman mentioned he had “borrowed Mr. Nancy from the story I had not yet told and I put him, or a version of him, into American Gods.”
Anansi Boys is not the first of Gaiman’s works to be adapted to television. Winter is Coming writes that American Gods ran for three seasons until Starz cancelled the show. Gaiman’s comic book series The Sandman is also in the progress of being adapted, and stars incredible actors including Charles Dance, Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Coleman, David Thewlis, and Steven Fry. Good Omens will also return for a second season on Amazon Prime sometime in 2022. The show is based on Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel of the same name and stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
Entertainment Weekly also included a statement from Gaiman which reads: “Anansi Boys as a TV series has been a long time coming — I first started working with [production companies] Endor and Red on making it over a decade ago.” He claims his team needed Amazon Prime “to come on board and embrace [their] vision.”
Gaiman will serve as a co-showrunner for the series with Douglas Mackinnon. The pilot will be directed by Hanelle Culpepper. Other episodes will be directed by Jermain Julien and Azhur Saleem. Gaiman, Sir Larry Henry, Arvind Ethan David, Kara Smith, and Racheal Ofori will all write the episodes.
There is no other information regarding the Anansi Boys release as of now.