Fuller is coming off a celebrated run on NBC’s Hannibal, a very stylish, psychologically complex adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter novels, and American Gods is an opportunity for him to continue exploring darker storytelling while incorporating the whimsical elements of his earlier TV series, such as Pushing Daisies. It’s too early to say if the show will pull that off, but its first episode is certainly a step in the right direction. To match the scope of the novel, American Gods will need an aesthetic that embraces both the grit and operatic spectacle of Gaiman’s world. Who are the gods of the American melting pot? When people from different cultures unite to create a new nation, what happens to the gods of the past? What kinds of new gods will emerge? In his 2001 novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman asked massive questions about national identity, immigration, and faith, and after years of languishing in development limbo at HBO, an adaptation has finally arrived courtesy of Starz and showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.

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