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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Prime Video’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys is now filming in Scotland, and the already-outstanding cast just got even better. Whoopi Goldberg has joined up as the antagonist Bird Woman, who—along with a whole gaggle of other gods—comes from what Amazon describes as “the mythical World Before Time—a place that isn’t a place, where the animals who are gods still walk. A place of incredible beauty, magic, and danger.”

In a press release, Gaiman said:

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“When I first conceived Anansi Boys, decades ago, I imagined Whoopi Goldberg as Bird Woman. I wasn’t able to meet her until 2018, when she interviewed me with some of the Good Omens team at New York Comic Con. At which point she mentioned that she had just finished listening to Sir Lenny Henry’s reading of Anansi Boys, and that it was one of her favourite books. Sometimes things feel planned and inevitable, and we are incredibly lucky. She’s going to be scary.”

For her part, Goldberg was already an admirer of Anansi Boys: “I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic.” Goldberg was most recently seen in season two of Star Trek: Picard (pictured above), and a number of other projects.

Five other gods have joined the cast as well: Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Black Sails) as Tiger, who has long been angry at Anansi; Emmanuel Ighodaro (Krypton) as the proud Lion; Cecilia Noble (Killing Eve) as the wise Elephant; musician Ayanna Witter-Johnson as the deadly Snake; and Don Gilet (Doctor Who) as the food-loving Monkey. None of these gods, it should be noted, are particular fans of Anansi.

Anansi Boys stars Malachi Kirby as Charlie Nancy, who discovers after his father’s death that his dad was no ordinary man, but Anansi (Delroy Lindo) the trickster god of stories. What’s more, he has a brother (Kirby again) named Spider—and Spider has some ideas about how to spice up Charlie’s life.

The cast also includes L. Scott Caldwell, Lachele Carl, CCH Pounder, Joy Richardson, Grace Saif,  Fiona Shaw, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, and Jason Watkins. No release date has been announced.

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Molly Templeton

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Molly Templeton has been a bookseller, an alt-weekly editor, and assistant managing editor of Tor.com, among other things. She now lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods.
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