This time is Neil Gaiman’s time. Between American Gods on Starz, The Sandman on Netflix and Good Omens on Amazon Prime Video, the authors work is being adapted at a furious rate. And there’s more on the way: Amazon has an adaptation of Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys coming up, with Gaiman serving as showrunner.
Well…he was supposed to serve as co-showrunner alongside Douglas Mackinnon, who was also co-showrunner on Good Omens for its first two seasons. But recently, we heard that Mackinnon had dropped out of Good Omens ahead of the third and final season, which Amazon hasn’t yet officially ordered. And now, Deadline reports that Mackinnon has dropped out of Anansi Boys as well.
This leaves Gaiman as the sole showrunner on both of these shows. No details were given, but it makes you wonder what happened to make Mackinnon leave important jobs on both shows. Perhaps something happened in his personal life, perhaps he and Gaiman had a falling out, or perhaps it’s none of our business.
Showrunner Douglas Mackinnon leaves both Good Omens, Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys follows Charlie Nancy, a man with an estranged father living a fairly mundane life. When his dad dies, he discovers a couple of things: A) his father was actually Anansi, a trickster god from Akan folklore, and; B) he has a brother named Spider, a spider often being the form that Anansi took in folktales. Cue the adventure!
Incidentally, Anansi previously appeared on American Gods, where he was memorably played by Orlando Jones. Jones later had a falling out with the show, so it’s hard to imagine him back in the role for Anansi Boys, but there’s no doubt he would kill it.
Filming on Anansi Boys is over, so we’re getting these six episodes at some point down the line, just without Mackinnon’s help in post-production. Does that mean that Gaiman has to produce these series alone or will a replacement be hired? It’s hard to see him managing two big TV shows by himself. Hopefully it all works out and we’re once again inundated with Gaiman goodness.
