‘American Gods’ Producer Responds To Orlando Jones’ Claims He Was Fired Because Of Racism
On Saturday (December 14), Orlando Jones claimed he was fired from the Starz show American Gods because his character Mr. Nancy sent “the wrong message for Black America” by a producer. Now, the show’s producer has issued a response.
A spokesperson for the show’s production company Fremantle tells Deadline, “The storylines of American Gods have continually shifted and evolved to reflect the complex mythology of the source material,” they said. “Mr. Jones’ option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within Season 3.”
Jones claimed that he had been fired rather than his contract not being renewed, and that happened because American Gods hired a new showrunner.
“I’m not going to name names but the new season 3 showrunner is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he’s very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy’s angry, get s**t done is the wrong message for Black America,” he said in a video he tweeted out.
“That’s right,” he continues. “This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I’m sure he has many Black bffs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god, Mr. Nancy, he’d start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?”
In other tweets, Jones labeled Fremantle “a nightmare” that treated him “like a 2nd class citizen for doing your job [too] well.” He also claimed “they were exceptionally nasty and evil the way they did it.”
In American Gods, Mr. Nancy is an African deity who becomes a lens to address 21st century racial issues in America.
