'American Gods' TV adaptation cast news 2016: Casts comedian Dane Cook

The TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's celebrated novel, "American Gods," casts comedian Dane Cook as Shadow Moon's (Ricky Whittle) friend, Robbie.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cook's character will be Shadow's friend who promises to pick up Shadow's slack after he's sent to jail. Robbie is also the husband of Audrey, the best friend of Shadow's wife, Laura (Emily Browning).

To those who are unfamiliar with the book, "American Gods" follows the story of Shadow as he is recruited as a bodyguard for Mr. Wednesday, who, unbeknownst to him, is the modern personification of the Norse god Odin. Together, Shadow and Mr. Wednesday go on a cross-country trip meeting old gods and new as they prepare for a battle which will have the ancient deities fight with the newer gods of technology, celebrities, and drugs.

The show will be run by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green. Fuller is best known for his work on NBC's "Hannibal" which ended last year. "Hannibal" was known for its artful cinematography and visual poetry, an element that might be necessary for "American Gods," which is full of numerous abstract concepts.

Entertainment Weekly has also released a picture of one of the new gods. Dubbed "Tech Boy," he is the god who feeds off everybody's devotion to technology. As the other older gods are personified in their old age, Tech Boy is a young man, suggesting that he is one of the more recent gods who manifested not so long ago. He is played by Bruce Langley.

In the book, Shadow has also run into a bunch of other younger gods like the god of television, who is constantly trying to bribe Shadow into betraying Mr. Wednesday and switching sides. This has made Shadow mistrust every TV set that he encountered and lead him to read more books.