American Gods: First Trailer Released!

Starz debuted the first trailer for its American Gods series at Comic Con... and it is spectacular.

After months of ever-building excitement as its stellar cast has gradually been announced, last night we got our first real look into the world of American Gods, the Bryan Fuller and Michael Green-produced Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's modern literary classic. The trailer was unveiled during a panel about the show at the San Diego Comic Con, where Gaiman, Fuller, Green, and several members of the cast hosted the big reveal. What they showed us was more that we possibly could have anticipated so early before the show's release: not just a teaser or short clip, but a full-blown trailer, with an appropriately epic scope for what will obviously be an epic series.

The trailer introduces us to many of the characters we've seen cast over the past few months: Ricky Whittle's tortured Shadow, Ian McShane's mysterious Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning's not-exactly-dead Laura, Peter Stormare's vicious Czernobog, Crispin Glover's appropriately insane-looking Mr. World. But it also introduces us for the first time to the show's aesthetic and tonal style... and it is quite the impressive revelation. The haunting, richly cinematic visuals recall the brilliant first season of True Detective, as do the dreamlike landscapes and grim blues-tinged music. It all evokes a powerful sense of existential mystery that couldn't be more perfect for Shadow's journey into the otherworldly heart of the American zeitgeist. 

All of it channels the spirit of Gaiman's novel perfectly, striking just the right balance of breathing life faithfully into his words while also approaching them with a fresh and original artistic eye. Fans of the novel should love what they see: this is Gaiman's world, realized off the page. But it isn't just a matter of faithfulness to please the fans: it also very clearly looks like brilliant television in its own right, and should be more than enough to convince those unfamiliar with the author's work that this will be some of next year's most crucial appointment TV. There's still a lot we have yet to see: Gillian Anderson's god of Media, Orlando Jones's Mr. Nancy, and the newest member of the cast who was just announced at the trailer's Comic Con screening: Pushing Daisies' Kristen Chenoweth as Easter. We can hope for glimpses of them in future trailers, but for right now, this initial teaser is everything we could want and then some.

Check it out below:

- Christopher S. Jordan