‘American Gods’ Uses Twitter Instead Of Trailers To Show Off New Footage

On April 30, 2017, American Gods will bring Neil Gaiman’s story about how belief intersects with the modern world to Starz’s primetime line-up. Based on the novel of the same name, the show stars Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) as an ex-con who gets mixed up in the mysterious and supernatural world of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). From the mind of Gaiman and in the hands of showrunner Bryan Fuller, American Gods is sure to be a surreal visual splendor. But since the trailer released in June of 2016, Starz has been hoarding what is surely an ocular delight. Except for their Twitter account.

For the last few weeks, Starz has been releasing new footage in the form of GIFS on social media. Some, like the Evening Star (Cloris Leachman) drinking or Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) smoking, are similar to the scenes from the trailer. Others, like Shadow stealing a star from the sky, are from never-before-aired scenes. What they all have in common though is showing the dichotomy between the lived-in feel of the world of the old gods and the shiny hyper-modern one of the new gods, with Shadow Moon trapped in the middle.

Each GIF is accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek tweet that serves to give a clue about the image for newcomers and a wink and a nod to fans of Gaiman’s novel. But whether you’ve been waiting years to see the gods duke it out on the small screen or just discovered the series today, the social team of American Gods knows how to pique interest in their fantasy epic.