“The 100” star Ricky Whittle has been cast as lead character Shadow Moon on Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s “American Gods,” the premium cable network announced Thursday.
Filming begins in April.
“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.”
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.”
“I’m thrilled that Ricky has been cast as Shadow,” said Gaiman in a statement. “His auditions were remarkable. The process of taking a world out of the pages of a book, and putting it onto the screen has begun. ‘American Gods’ is, at its heart, a book about immigrants, and it seems perfectly appropriate that Shadow will, like so much else, be Coming to America. I’m delighted Ricky will get to embody Shadow. Now the fun starts.”
“We searched every continent and country and all the islands in between for our Shadow Moon, and we are lucky to have found Ricky,” added Fuller and Green. “Fans of the novel will find he has every bit of the heart of the character they fell in love with.”
Whittle is best known for his series regular role on The CW’s “The 100,” now in its third season. He is represented by TalentWorks, Creative Artists Management in the UK, and Untitled Entertainment.