The creators and stars of American Gods, the Starz television series based on the award-winning 2001 novel by Neil Gaiman, made an appearance at this year’s New York Comic-Con last week and were eager to talk about what is planned for the upcoming second season. We got to speak with several members of the incredible show, which returns to STARZ next year, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center to discuss their characters and the future of the series.

See below our roundtable discussion with Emily Browning (Laura Moon), Pablo Schreiber, and Demore Barnes (Mr. Ibis).

Interview: Emily Browning, Pablo Schreiber, Demore Barnes

Question: How do you unpack these characters within the time limits you have on screen and what have you learned from them?

Pablo Schreiber: Well, that’s the beauty of long-form television, you have the chance over time to get to know and learn about these characters. The relationship you have with them as an audience member early in the series may be totally different than what it becomes later on because you get to dish out the information in such small doses. Also the way this series is formatted, like in episode four we got to know Laura in a really deep way; episodes 1 – 3 were chronologically telling a story in one way and then we flashback and learn everything through her perspective. We get to know her reality. Hopefully later on we’ll get to know Mr. Ibis’ reality. That’s the beauty of the series is we get to do the deep dives with each character. This season we got to do an episode that’s mainly Sweeney-related. As an ensemble show there are so many wonderful places to focus a camera, there’s just a glut of talent in this room and you can really focus on any one of them for an hour.

Emily Browning: It’s almost like the inverse of unpacking because it felt to me we were building it as we went along and it felt like that in season 1 as well. We only started off with the first few scripts and to get more scripts and see that your character is evolving as the writers were seeing what you were doing, that was really my favorite part of that process. This season, and I think this happens the longer a show goes on, but as actors we have more of a say in our characters. For me, a lot of what Laura has become in the show isn’t really in the book, so we have to figure that out.

Pablo Schreiber: And I think Neil [Gaiman] enjoys that too because he gets to watch something blossom before his very eyes. It’s a discovery for him too.

When asked about the upcoming season 2:

Demore Barnes: Season 2 was a blast because all roads lead to Cairo, Illinois, in the storyline, so as a result much to my delight I get to play with a lot of my fellow actors and a lot of the cast of the show. That enables my character to gain a greater understanding of what they are about and what their intentions are. Also it allows the audience to gain a better sense of Mr. Ibis and we he’s about.

New York Comic-Con ended last weekend, but you can look forward to more adventures with Mad Sweeney, Laura Moon, Mr. Ibis and the rest of American Gods when the show returns to STARZ next year.

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