These gods work in mighty mysterious ways
Where do American Gods go to build a home? Canada.
The eight-episode first season of the multi-million-dollar U.S. TV fantasy series was shot in Toronto, one reason executive producer Bryan Fuller jokes it should be called “North American Gods.”
Addressing reporters in Los Angeles, Fuller admitted the biggest reasons to shoot in Toronto were the tax incentives, not to mention the low Canadian dollar.
“And the other reason is Toronto’s a great city, and it has fantastic crews,” said Fuller, who shot the NBC drama Hannibal in Canada.
Based on the bestselling 2001 novel by Neil Gaiman, also an executive producer on the series, American Gods follows the adventures of Shadow Moon (played by U.K. actor Ricky Whittle), a man released from prison after the death of his wife Laura (Australian Emily Browning). Shadow meets a con artist named Wednesday (Deadwood star Ian McShane), and is soon caught up in an out-of-this-world road trip across America, recruiting old gods from mythology and religion in a square-off against new gods from the worlds of media and technology.
Developed at HBO, then shifted to Starz, the epic series began production in 2015 and wrapped the first eight episodes in Toronto last October.
British Columbia-born Pablo Schreiber is among the principals as 4,000-year-old leprechaun Mad Sweeney, a part expanded beyond the original book.
Schreiber, who at 6-5 is rather large for a leprechaun, told the Comic-Con crowd that he felt like he was given “a gift from the gods” just being part of the series. Best known as “Pornstache” from Orange is the New Black, Schreiber admitted fantasy is not his usual genre. He was hooked on the challenge, however, of trying to make these outrageous characters “incredibly believable.”