Jeremy Davies, who played motherfucker Ray Aibelli in “Spanking The Monkey,” Corporal Upham in “Saving Private Ryan,” Laurence in “Twister,” Manson in “Helter Skelter,” time-travel physicist Daniel Faraday in “Lost,” and limpy criminal Dickie Bennett in “Justified,” will play Jesus Christ in Bryan Fuller’s 2017 Starz hourlong “American Gods.”
When I interviewed Fuller last month in Beverly Hills I think he said he had already cast Jesus -- but I don’t think Jesus appears in Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” novel, so I’d assumed it would be a very small part. But now that we know of Davies’ involvement, I guess Jesus will be more than a face peeking out of the shadows to watch the showdown between the Old Gods (Hephaestus, Odin, Osiris, et al) and New (Media, Technology, et al).
“Hannibal” vet Davies will be sharing the screen with a “Pushing Daises” alumna Kristin Chenoweth, who plays Easter. From Starz’ literature on the series:
“Resurrected on Ostara’s feast day, Jesus has always been generous in sharing the Easter holiday with the ancient goddess. But the overly empathetic Son of God would be crushed to know that Ostara harbors some deeply buried resentment over the issue.”
Ian McShane (“Game of Thrones”) plays Mr. Wednesday, Ricky Whittle (“The 100”) plays Shadow Moon and Pablo Schreiber (“The Wire”) plays leprechaun Mad Sweeney. Others in the cast include Crispin Glover as Mr. World, Peter Stormare as Czernobog, Corbin Bernsen as Vulcan and Gillian Anderson as Media.
Find all of Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive on the matter here.
