As the terrific American Gods TV series finally arrives on screens, heres our chat with showrunner Bryan Fuller…

Loudly]

And to the US Media.

Well, you have a con man who is saying lets make the gods great again.

This story is a ripe opportunity for social comment.

Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to move forwards.

It feels like with both Brexit and the Trump election, were two nations taking a step backwards.

American Godsis going to provoke conversations I think.

Youre tackling those themes and more.

We hit a lot of different issues.

Normalising perspectives of the Other is important.

It is about vilification and demonization.

Those extremities are terrifying because that is like a national personality disorder.

Thats indicative of a borderline personality disorder and it feels like were suffering that on a national identity level.

It sounds like your research forHannibalmight have fed in to some of that!

Ive learned so much about psychology fromHannibal!

How did the division of labour go when it came to writing episodes?

Neil Gaiman has credits on all of them, but he didnt write any scripts?

The division of labour was pretty even between Michael and I.

We both like each other as human beings and we have similar points of view from wildly divergent perspectives.

We both want to represent different points of view and different spiritualities.

A year or so ago, you told me there were plans to have each episode from different perspectives?

That was really about us feeling very strongly that we wanted to represent…

More of the female voice?

Because the book is a sausage party.

We wanted to have not only Laura represented but to tell Bilquis story as well.

We have a wonderful episode with Eostre and Kristen Chenoweth playing that role.

Its a story about multiplicity, in its essence.

Multiple gods, multiple comings to America…

In terms of locations for the show, you dont have any standing sets for this?

We have a couple but notenough[laughs].

That was part and parcel of representing a show that is about America.

2001 to 2016/7 is obviously a long time in terms of that stuff.

Is that where the most changes have happened?

Hes much more slick now.

How is that a modern-day tool?

We certainly see that with the different characters.

Ive seen Gillian Anderson as Marilyn Monroe.

Its in the novel!

So those were the two characters that really kind of evolved from the book.

So how on earth have you pulled that off?!

The casting of Ian McShane went down particularly well.

Everyone seemed to be oh yes!

Was it Al Swearingen that brought you to him?

Whos now played by Peter Stomare?

Peter Stomare, who isamazingas Czernobog, so much so that its his face on our crew shirt.

Did you get [UK Ian McShane series]Lovejoyover in the US?

Those were just personal snaps.

Yeah [laughs] exactly, they were taken from his iPhone.

So I was aware of the phenomenon ofLovejoy, but mostly had known him fromDeadwood.

And Ricky Whittle, we have to thank you for casting another Brit there.

I was not familiar withHollyoaks, neitherStrictlyeither.

I was familiar with him fromThe 100and his multiple auditions for the role.

I adore Ricky Whittle.

Im very grateful for Rickys spirit and attitude and approach to the show.

He is a charmer to say the least.

I dont know if youve ever seen him dance, but he has great moves too.

You know who also has amazing dance moves?

Pablo Schreiber, to see him on the dance floor, that cancan move.

Were being asked to wrap up, so finally then, youre currently in post.

Bilquis origin story I think is one of the most fantastically visually exciting things weve done on the show.

After Orlando Jones did the first take where he performed the speech, all of those men applauded.

Theres a line where its like you dont even know youre black yet.

Bryan Fuller, thank you very much!