American Gods season 3: Orlando Jones breaks down exit, show responds

American Gods has certainly shown its fair share of chaos through three seasons on Starz, but there may very well be just as much chaos happening behind the scenes. For more on that, just look at the latest headlines!

Earlier this weekend, series star Orlando Jones (who did some writing/producing on the second season, as well) blasting new showrunner Charles “Chic” Eglee as well as production company Fremantle, proclaiming that he was fired from the series. Why? Here’s some of what he had to say via Twitter:

“There will be no more Mr. Nancy. Don’t let these motherf—–s tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don’t … I’m not going to name names but the new season 3 showrunner is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he’s very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy’s angry, get sh– done is the wrong message for black America. That’s right. This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I’m sure he has many black bffs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god Mr. Nancy he’d start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?”

Jones has since received support from season 1 showrunners Michael Green and Bryan Fuller, alongside many other famous names including Gabrielle Union, who also faced her own controversy with Fremantle while working on America’s Got Talent.

Meanwhile, tonight American Gods issued a new statement (via TVLine) where the denied many of his allegations, and claimed that removing Mr. Nancy from the series was a creative decision:

“The storylines of American Gods have continually shifted and evolved to reflect the complex mythology of the source material. Mr. Jones’ option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within season three. Several new characters, many of which have already been announced, will be introduced into Shadow Moon’s world that will further contribute to the show’s legacy as one of the most diverse series on television.”

Meanwhile, a rep for Eglee stated the following via Entertainment Weekly:

“Mr. Jones is wrong on multiple counts, the least of which is Mr. Eglee was not born in Connecticut.”

This is far from the first controversy we’ve seen with American Gods, given that it’s already rotated showrunners plus also had a lengthy season 2 hiatus and lost several other notable performers along the way, including Gillian Anderson (who worked with Fuller previously on Hannibal).

What do you think about Jones’ remarks, and also American Gods’ response?

Be sure to share right now in the comments, and stick around for more news. (Photo: Starz.)