Six actors have joined the cast of Amazon Prime's Anansi Boys, including Whoopi Goldberg.
As reported by Variety, Goldberg will play the Bird Woman -- the God of Birds and one of the primary antagonists of the series who has a score to settle with the spider god Anansi. "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," she said.
Gaiman added that when he first wrote the novel Anansi Boys, he imagined Goldberg when writing Bird Woman. "I wasn’t able to meet her until 2018," he explained. "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."
Additionally, five other actors have joined the cast as other animal gods from The World Before Time:
- Hakeem Kae-Kazeem will play Tiger, a frequent target of the spider god's trickery and "a dangerous enemy to Anansi and all his bloodline."
- Emmanuel Ighodaro will play Lion, who is "proud and noble and has no time for Anansi."
- Cecelia Noble will play Elephant, who is "old and wise, and hates Anansi."
- Ayanna Witter-Johnson will play Snake, who is "beautiful and deadly and hates Anansi."
- Don Gilet will play Monkey, who is "terrified of Anansi, keen on food—particularly fruit—and has the attention span of, well, a monkey."
Goldberg and the other actors join Malachi Kirby, who stars in the series as both Fat Charlie Nancy and Spider, a pair of mismatched twin brothers who discover their shared family heritage as the children of Anansi. Delroy Lindo is set to play the spider god himself, with Gaiman describing him as "a giant of the stage and the screen, and we are so lucky to have him. I cannot wait to see his gravitas and charm being deployed for the benefit of Anansi Boys, as he plays an unreliable father with hidden depths."
Anansi Boys will air on Prime Video. The series doesn't yet have a release date.
Source: Variety