Orlando Jones has reportedly been fired from the cast of American Gods. He took to Twitter on Saturday morning to blast production company Freemantle USA and the showrunner who fired him, Charles Eglee.  

Jones played trickster god Mr. Nancy on the series from Starz and Freemantle, based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name.  Jones was a fan favorite and took on a much bigger role in season two, on and off screen.  But, the show has been rife with problems and exits.  Gillian Anderson left the show, as did Kristin Chenoweth and a parade of showrunners.  It’s been rough.  

Now, Jones is claiming that he and/or Mr. Nancy have been ousted for being “the wrong message for black America”, and that the firing is based more on political and racist reasons than reasons of performance.  Jones has support in other performers who are entangled with Freemantle, in particular, Gabrielle Union who has said that her removal from America’s Got Talent was politically motivated. 

Any way you slice it, this is bad news for American Gods.  They’re losing one of fans’ favorite characters, some really solid performance and a fair amount of additional street cred.  Jones deliberately thanked fans of the show, Neil Gaiman and producers Brad Fuller and Michael Green for their kindness and collaboration.  But, Fuller and Green are no longer on the show, and Gaiman isn’t very involved.  So, the current crew has got a big problem going into season 3.

https://twitter.com/TheOrlandoJones/status/1205836143897579520

Stay tuned for more American Gods news.  We doubt that this saga is over. 

RELATED:  AMERICAN GODS Adds Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon as a Leprechaun

Jenny Flack
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