General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Anansi Boys (TV series)

Anansi Boys is an unreleased six-episode Prime Video limited series adapted from Neil Gaiman's 2005 fantasy novel of the same name. Amazon Studios ordered it to series on July 21, 2021, filming took place in Scotland from November 2021 to May 2022, and the completed series has since been caught up in the fallout from sexual assault allegations made against Gaiman in January 2025.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Order	Ordered to series by Amazon Studios on July 21, 2021, as a six-episode limited series for Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories¹
Source	Neil Gaiman's 2005 novel Anansi Boys, a stand-alone story, not a sequel or spin-off of American Gods¹
Filming	Began November 2021 and wrapped May 2022, shot in Scotland including Glasgow, Leith (Edinburgh), and Bathgate²^•³
Lead cast	Malachi Kirby as both Charlie Nancy and his brother Spider; Delroy Lindo as Mr. Nancy (Anansi); Whoopi Goldberg as the Bird Woman²
Creative team	Co-showrunners Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon; directors Hanelle M. Culpepper, Jermain Julien, and Azhur Saleem; writers Gaiman, Lenny Henry, Arvind Ethan David, Kara Smith, and Racheal Ofori¹^•⁴
Status	Fully filmed and in limbo since January 2025; TVLine reported in July 2025 that it is on track for a Fall 2026 release, while one cast member doubted it would ever be released²^•⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows Charlie "Fat Charlie" Nancy, a young man used to being embarrassed by his estranged father. When his father dies, Charlie discovers that his father was Anansi, the trickster god of stories, and that he has a brother. That brother, Spider, enters Charlie's life, determined to make it more interesting but also a lot more dangerous.¹^•⁶ Anansi himself is an incarnation of the West African trickster god, a spider figure whose tales traveled to the Caribbean during the transatlantic slave trade.²^•⁷

Malachi Kirby plays the double lead role of Charlie and Spider. The supporting cast combines gods and humans: Delroy Lindo as Mr. Nancy, Whoopi Goldberg as the Bird Woman (God of Birds), Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Tiger, Emmanuel Ighodaro as Lion, Cecilia Noble as Elephant, Ayanna Witter-Johnson as Snake, and Don Gilet as Monkey, alongside Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn as teacher Rosie Noah, Grace Saif as Detective Constable Daisy Day, CCH Pounder as Mrs. Higgler, Jason Watkins as Graham Coats, and Fiona Shaw as Maeve Livingstone.²^•⁸

Development and production

The project originated around 1996 in a conversation between Gaiman and the actor and comedian Sir Lenny Henry about writing a story that was diverse and part of a culture they both loved; Henry later narrated the novel's audiobook.¹ A BBC mini-series adaptation produced by Red Production Company was announced in 2014 but did not proceed.⁹ Gaiman, who had an overall deal at Amazon Studios, began working with Endor Productions and Red on a television version more than a decade before the 2021 order, and in September 2020 he and director Douglas Mackinnon received a call from Amazon that set the current production in motion.¹^•¹⁰

Shooting in Scotland. The Covid-19 pandemic ended the original plan to shoot the story, which is set all over the world, in multiple countries. Mackinnon devised a plan to film it entirely in a large studio outside Edinburgh, using what Gaiman described as the biggest studio in Europe and cutting-edge CGI technology.¹⁰^•¹ Filming began in November 2021 and wrapped at the end of May 2022, with supporting artists cast in Glasgow, Leith, and Bathgate.²^•³

Post-production. Douglas Mackinnon, who had been executive producer, director, and co-showrunner, left the series in November 2022 while it was in early post-production.¹¹ In October 2023 Gaiman said the episodes had been "picture locked" while he was on strike, that visual effects work was under way, and that he had been unable to work on the show during the Writers Guild of America strike from May to September 2023 because he was one of its writers.⁸

Release limbo

In January 2025 a New York Magazine article detailed allegations of sexual assault, abuse, and coercion against Gaiman from eight women; Gaiman denied the allegations, stating he had "never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone."¹² The allegations affected several adaptations of his work: Netflix canceled Dead Boy Detectives, and Amazon's Good Omens third season was cut down to a single 90-minute episode.⁵ Dark Horse Comics, which had begun publishing an Anansi Boys comic adaptation in June 2024, dropped Gaiman and canceled the comic and its collected volume after the seventh of eight planned issues.¹³

The television series itself was never officially canceled by Amazon. In late January 2025 a spokesperson for Amazon confirmed that Anansi Boys was moving forward, with a premiere likely later that year.¹⁴ In April 2025, however, star Delroy Lindo said he did not think the series would "ever see the light of day," telling Entertainment Weekly, "It's too bad on many levels, but I was really excited to do it."⁵ TVLine reported in July 2025, citing sources, that the series is on track for a Fall 2026 release, after earlier reports had pointed to a Q2 2025 premiere.² As of mid-2026 no release date had appeared on IMDb, and the British Comedy Guide classifies the project as a comedy drama "that was never made," canceled before being produced, a characterization that conflicts with the TVLine report.¹⁵^•⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026