The second season of American Gods, the Starz adaption of Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel, has been plagued for months by production turmoil, including the recent sidelining of its replacement show runner. So there has been some skepticism among fans of the series that season 2 could live up to the darkly haunting tone of the well-received first season. Now we have our first teaser trailer, and honestly, it looks quite promising, even if we mostly just get tantalizing glimpses of the returning cast.

(Mild spoilers for season 1 below)

The central character in American Gods is Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), a recently released convict whose wife, Laura (Emily Browning), is killed in a car crash the day he is supposed to be coming home. Numb with grief, he falls in with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and becomes his bodyguard. But Mr. Wednesday is not who he seems. He's actually the ancient Norse god Odin seeking to rally all the remaining Old Gods, who are slowly dying off from people's lack of belief. Their mission: beat back the encroaching influence of all the New Gods so they can survive.

Prepare to meet your gods

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

Starz/Freemantle Media

The first season covered roughly the first third of Gaiman's novel of the same name, and it culminated in a gathering of the gods at the home of the goddess Easter. So expect season 2 to cover much of the second third, including a major plot twist involving Mr. Wednesday. And we'll likely see a few new faces, including Mama-Ji (Sakina Jaffrey), the Hindu goddess of death (now working as a waitress at Motel America), and Mr. Town (Dean Winters), a ruthless agent of the New Gods.

Unfortunately, we won't see last season's standout cast member Gillian Anderson. She frankly stole the show with her shapeshifting portrayal of Media, appearing as David Bowie, Lucille Ball, and Marilyn Monroe, among other pop culture icons. The delightful Kristin Chenoweth will also not be returning as the goddess Easter, apparently due to scheduling conflicts. These are huge losses, particularly given the departure of season 1 show runners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green. We've also heard all manner of rumors about onset turmoil and script rewrites.

But season 1 wasn't perfect either, particularly the second half. So we're still holding out hope that season 2 will pull itself together in time for its debut next year.

If catching up on S1, allow Ars to be your audio companion. Decrypted is Ars Technica's weekly podcast about the TV that obsesses us, and we dedicated an entire episode to dissecting American Gods. Listen or subscribe however you please below, and let us know what you think through the comments section, on iTunes, or via email.

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