Hot on the heels of the announcement that Ian McShane would be joining American Gods, the Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel, Sucker Punch and Pompeii star Emily Browning has also been announced as filling a key role. Browning will play Laura Moon, the wife of Ricky Whittles’ Shadow Moon, a man released from prison only to find that the life he expected to find is no longer in the cards. Shadow quickly falls in with Mister Wednesday (McShane), a mysterious and elderly grifter who leads Shadow into a significantly stranger world than he expected to find on the outside.
SEE ALSO: Ian McShane Cast as Mr Wednesday in American Gods
Laura’s role in the novel is actually relatively minor, only showing up for several flashbacks and scenes along Shadow’s journey through the strange, mythical backlands of America. However, it’s easy to assume that her role will be expanded for the series. In its report, Deadline describes Laura as “Shadow Moon’s wife, who has been preparing for her husband’s pending prison release. Little does she know that she will go on an unexpected journey that leads her to an epiphany about her relationship and affords her a second chance to get things right.” Fans of the novel will note one or two key details missing from this account, which means that Starz will either be changing some elements of Laura’s journey for the series, or else a few surprises will remain for those seeing the American Gods story for the first time.
Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green had this to say of Browning’s casting:
“You don’t need a magical coin when you have Emily Browning. She brings a fascinating spark of life to every role she inhabits and we are tickled she will be lighting up Laura Moon and bringing her to life in more ways than one on American Gods.”
Sounds like a ringing endorsement, but just in case protective American Gods fans need any more reassurance that the right choice has been made, Gaiman himself had this to say:
“I’ve been fascinated by Emily Browning since ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. She has a challenge ahead of her: Laura is a tricky character, and the Laura on the screen is even trickier and more dangerous than the one on the page. She’s going to have a wonderful time bringing Laura to life.”
From Gaiman’s comments, it sounds like the Laura of the series will have quite a bit more to do than the one of the novel. The series begins shooting in April, and we should be hearing more casting announcements any day now. Might we suggest Michael Nyqvist as Czernobog and Clarke Peters as Mr Nancy? But who else would you like to see in American Gods, and in what role?
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Originally published March 17, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
