The Starz version of Neil Gaiman’s novel is currently casting the role of Shadow Moon, with British soap star Ricky Whittle among fan-favoured actors

The long-awaited TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling modern fantasy novel American Gods has a production start date – and the search to find the actor who will play lead character Shadow Moon is nearing an end.

The US channel Starz gave the greenlight to the production by FremantleMedia North America in June, with the recently cancelled Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller and Michael Green (Heroes) as showrunners.

Gaiman will executive-produce the series and also write some of the episodes for the show, which will begin production in March 2016.

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No cast announcements have yet been made, but in charge of finding the principal actors is Lucy Bevan, whose casting credits include Maleficent, Mr Holmes, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Snow White and the Huntsman, and the TV adaptation of JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy.

Bevan, based at Ealing Studios in London, has put out a casting call for the lead role of Shadow Moon, with a deadline of 4 September for applications.

The call reads: “Lucy Bevan is looking to cast the lead role of Shadow, male, early to mid 30s, American, black/mixed race/North African in appearance. An ex-con with a quiet intellect and a lithe, powerful frame. This series contains adult content.”

When Starz announced the deal in June, it said that “start of production is dependent on casting the lead role of Shadow Moon”.

With the casting call stating that production will begin in March, it suggests that Bevan is close to choosing the actor for the pivotal role, if she has not already done so.

American Gods was first published in 2001 and was the first novel from Gaiman, then primarily known for his comics work on titles such as Sandman from DC/Vertigo. The novel reinvents the gods of myth and places aspects of them in modern-day America, brought over by waves of immigration in US history. But the power of the old gods is dwindling as belief wanes, and new gods of commerce and the internet are rising to take their places.

When the series was announced, Gaiman said: “I am thrilled, scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation. The team that is going to bring the world of American Gods to the screen has been assembled like the master criminals in a caper movie: I’m relieved and confident that my baby is in good hands.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Could Ricky Whittle become Shadow Moon? Photograph: BBC/PA

Starz and FremantleMedia have made a virtue of the casting, especially of Shadow, who gets drawn into the battle between the old gods and the new after being released from prison following the death of his wife.

Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said in June: “We hope to create a series that honours the book and does right by the fans, who have been casting it in their minds for years. The search for Shadow begins today!”

Fans of the book, which has been translated into 30 languages, were invited to post on Twitter with the hashtag #CastingShadow to put forward their own choices, and two months after the announcement, suggestions are still being made.

Fan favourites include Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Conan), Joe Manganiello (True Blood) and even Hollyoaks and Strictly Come Dancing star Ricky Whittle.

Bevan’s casting call makes it clear she is only at this stage looking for the actor to play Shadow. American Gods has had a chequered past with adaptations, with HBO obtaining the rights at one point but abandoning the project, though Gaiman had written a pilot script - apparently with plenty of material not in the book - himself.