David Slade has come on board as a director and executive producer of Starz’s “American Gods” adaptation, TheWrap has learned.
Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are serving as showrunners on the series based on Neil Gaiman‘s bestselling novel of the same name. Slade will direct the pilot episode as well as several more down the line.
Starz has ordered the show to series, with a 2017 premiere planned. Start of production, however, is contingent upon the casting of the lead character of Shadow.
“American Gods” portrays a war between the old gods of biblical and mythological roots and a new group of gods “reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs.”
The story’s lead character, Shadow, is described as “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.”
Slade previously worked with Fuller on NBC’s “Hannibal,” which recently wrapped up its three-season run. He is represented by WME and Anonymous Content.