Neil Gaiman’s ‘Anansi Boys’ series casts its female leads

While Good Omens season 2 is knee-deep into production, Amazon’s next TV series based on a Neil Gaiman novel takes shape. Earlier this year, we discovered the studio was working on an adaptation of the Coraline scribe’s 2005 novel Anansi Boys, a book heavily inspired by African mythology.

We knew Malachi Kirby (Small Axe: “Mangrove”) and Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) joined the cast, and now the show has found its two female leads.

As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, British actresses Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn (Small Axe: “Lovers Rock”) and Grace Saif (13 Reasons Why) join Lindo and Kirby. St. Aubyn plays Rosie Noah, a teacher and fiancée to Charles “Fat Charlie” Nancy, Kirby’s protagonist. Rosie is “cheerful, wise, good-humored, and kind.”

Meanwhile, Saif portrays Detective Constable Daisy Day, who finds herself deep into several intersecting police cases, including a murder. Day is “smart, efficient, determined, and very funny.” The pair will appear opposite Kirby in his dual role as Charlie and his brother, Spider, and Lindo as the boys’ estranged father.

Executive producer Neil Gaiman said the following in a statement responding to the casting news:

“When you are casting something on the scale of Anansi Boys you need female leads who are as accomplished, charming, and brilliant as, well, Malachi Kirby in both his incarnations,” Gaiman stated. “Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Grace Saif are those women. [They’re] both funny, honest, brilliant actresses, and you will fall in love with both of them.”

Anansi Boys follows Charlie, a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his father, but when his dad dies, he discovers he was really Anansi, the trickster god of stories. What’s more, he finds out that he has a brother, one who is determined to make Charlie’s life much more interesting… and also a lot more dangerous. The series is shooting in Scotland, which is also home to filming on Good Omens.

Though the book is a spinoff of American Gods, the TV adaptation will not be related to the Starz American Gods series. That show ended earlier this year after three seasons and featured Orlando Jones as Anansi (pictured above) during its first two seasons before the actor’s controversial firing.

On top of Anansi Boys and Good Omens, Gaiman is also working on Netflix’s The Sandman, possibly coming this year.