American Gods has ditched Mr. Nancy, and the internet is not happy

American Gods has fired Orlando Jones, who plays one of the show’s most electrifying characters: Mr. Nancy. And the internet is not happy about it.

In a brief video on Twitter, Orlando Jones thanked his fans and explained the situation surrounding his firing from the cast of American Gods. According to Jones, he was fired from the role on September 10, 2019, and the reasons behind the event didn’t have much to do with his performance. In the video, he suggests that showrunner Charles Eglee wanted him off of the cast for reasons that had more to do with race and politics than his performance.

Jones played Mr. Nancy on the show, the Trickster and the god of storytelling. In West African mythology, Anansi was son of the sky god Nyame and earth goddess, Asase Ya. Anansi brought fire, rain and stories to the world. Anansi is most often depicted as a Trickster. He is often depicted as a petty and self-serving sort who sets out to take advantage of human foibles.

The funny thing is, I’ve always imagined Anansi as the Trickster — petty and so foolish you can laugh at his foibles — but the Anansi in American Gods captured perfectly, the rage and bitterness of the African diaspora. There’s a deep darkness in Jones’ Anansi. There is a clever ferocity that I’ve never quite ascribed to Anansi before.

I remember watching American Gods and seeing Mr. Nancy’s first performance. Jones’ depiction is one of the most unexpected incarnations of Anansi that I’ve ever seen or read about. Jones portrays a fierce and dapper deity who first appears on a slave ship and delivers a damning and violent speech and inveigles the dismayed slaves below deck to revolt and burn the ship, killing themselves in the process.

Listening to that speech, the way he railed and carried on, I became incensed. Incensed! It’s a feeling, I think, that only the descendants of slaves can understand. Besides that, I felt appreciation because finally, there was a mainstream hit story that made my people’s experience a part of the narrative. It felt nice to be included.

To now see the producers of this show backpedaling and trying to erase that progress is troubling. #AmericanGods and #OrlandoJones are trending on Twitter as bewildered fans learn of and object to this development. Well, what exactly did we expect, anyway? Personally, I’m extremely disappointed and maybe just a little bitter, to say the least. Still, we’ve already seen this sort of thing happen time and time again. Maybe we should have seen it coming.

Are you disappointed with the decision to fire Orlando Jones from American Gods? Sound off in the comments below.