Among the many deities both historic and imagined in Neil Gaiman's American Gods, one was notable by his absence in the list for the TV adaptation. Now we know that Jeremy Davies will be playing Jesus in the series.
According to Entertainment Weekly, which broke the news, Jesus will feature much as he does in the book: generously sharing the Easter holiday with Ostara (Kristin Chenoweth in the series) because of his resurrection story. But while he's happy about the situation, he little suspects that Ostara harbours some deeply held resentment over the sharing issue.
With the TV series' story expanding on the book's concept of a brewing conflict between the old and new gods (with the new including technology and Gillian Anderson's Media), the story will see Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), fresh out of prison and mourning what he thinks is a dead wife, recruited by Old God and trickster Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) to help round up other ancient deities to take on the new lot.
With Bryan Fuller and Michael Green running the show and David Slade as the main director, American Gods will hit screens next year. Davies, a veteran of shows such as Lost, has a role on supernatural series Sleepy Hollow and is part of the cast for the new Twin Peaks.