After three seasons, American Gods went through an incredibly tumultuous period of transition. With cast members leaving or being fired, showrunners changing, and other delays, the show always seemed to be on the verge of being canceled, and then, in March of this year, fans learned that the show would not be renewed for a fourth season.
Following the cancellation, Starz issued a press statement, which, to my mind, was a little underwhelming: “American Gods will not return for a fourth season.” Our gratitude goes out to our dedicated cast and crew, as well as our partners at Fremantle, who worked tirelessly to bring author and executive producer Neil Gaiman’s timeless story to life in a way that is relevant to the current cultural climate in our country.”
I understand that there wasn’t much else they could have said, but I was hoping for a little more emotion. Despite the controversy, it was still a fantastic show that brought Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel to life on the small screen. Despite this, I can’t say that I was surprised by the cancellation because the show only barely made it from one season to the other.
While there hasn’t been much news on whether or not the series will find a new home in the months since Gaiman expressed his enthusiasm for the project back in March, there has been some speculation.
American Gods Season 4 Release Date: Renewed Or Canceled
Back in 2019, Gaiman and showrunner Charles “Chic” Eglee was working on plans for the fourth season, but those plans came to a grinding halt after the show was canceled due to low ratings. However, there is still speculation that a series finale in the form of a TV movie or something similar may be in the works.
Even though we haven’t heard anything about it in the recent past, this type of thing has happened in the past as well. For example, when NBC canceled its time-traveling series Timeless, fans rioted, and the storyline was eventually wrapped up in a movie that was released in 2012. That’s exactly what happened with the cancellation of NBC’s Manifest, which was later picked up by Netflix for a final season of 20 episodes.
It’s possible that something similar to this will occur for American Gods, but I’m concerned that too many months have passed without any news. The optimist in me believes that they are just finalizing the details at this point and that we will hear something within the next few days.
American Gods season 4 Plot
Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) was seen bound to Yggdrasil, the World Tree, where he was holding a death vigil for Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), who had been killed by Laura Moon (Emily Browning) with Shadow Moon’s personal spear, Gungnir, in the season 3 finale.
In the final moments of what is now the series finale, Mr. Wednesday’s corpse vanished from the base of Yggdrasil, and it has not been found since. Was Mr. Wednesday attempting to deceive the audience? What does this mean for Shadow, and how will it affect him? It’s possible we’ll never find out.
We can expect to see the continuation of that storyline as well as what happens to Bilquis (Yetide Badaki), who embarked on a wild journey of her own in the third season if the series does return. In addition, let’s not forget Mr./Ms. World, who was most recently seen getting ready for a war between the Old Gods and the New Gods in the aftermath of Mr. Wednesday’s death.
If there is a fourth season of American Gods, I would be extremely interested in seeing Shadow’s story unfold further. If he comes to terms with his divinity as Odin’s son, the story will be turned on its head in a way that we haven’t seen it done previously.
