Amazon Prime's Anansi Boys limited series has found its Anansi/Mr. Nancy.
Delroy Lindo will play the trickster god in the streamer's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 2005 fantasy novel, confirmed The Hollywood Reporter. “Delroy Lindo is a giant of the stage and the screen, and we are so lucky to have him,” said Gaiman. “I cannot wait to see his gravitas and charm being deployed for the benefit of Anansi Boys, as he plays an unreliable father with hidden depths.”
A spinoff/sequel to Gaiman's novel American Gods, Anansi Boys centers on Charlie Nancy, a young man whose life becomes far more complicated after learning his estranged father, Mr. Nancy, is really Anansi, the trickster god of stories. The show describes Mr. Nancy as "a charming man who cheated on Charlie’s mother and who had another side to him as the god of stories and trickery."
Lindo is coming off his acclaimed performance in Spike Lee's 2020 film Da 5 Bloods, a drama about a group of Black veterans who return to Vietnam searching for the remains of their squad's fallen leader, along with the gold bars they buried nearby. He is also known for his role as attorney Adrian Boseman on Paramount+'s The Good Fight, as well as his roles in '90s and '00s movies like Get Shorty, The Cider House Rules and Gone in Sixty Seconds (to name but a few).
Orlando Jones played Anansi/Mr. Nancy for the first two seasons of Starz's American Gods TV show, as well as serving as a writer during Season 2's troubled production. He claimed Season 3 showrunner Charles “Chic” Eglee fired him after deciding his take on the trickster god was sending the “wrong message for Black America.” Jones is not expected to be involved with the Anansi Boys series.
Gaiman and Good Omens Season 1 director Douglas Mackinnon will act as showrunners on Amazon's Anansi Boys, with Gaiman also serving as a staff writer alongside Anansi Boys audiobook narrator/voice actor Lenny Henry, Arvind Ethan David, Kara Smith and Racheal Ofori. The Anansi Boys pilot will be directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper (Star Trek: Picard) when filming gets underway in Scotland later this year.
Amazon has yet to set a release date for Anansi Boys, which will span six episodes.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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