Has Neil Gaiman’s ‘Anansi Boys’ TV Series Been Cancelled Despite Being Fully Filmed?

The Sandman will return to Netflix this year for a second and final season, and Good Omens‘ third season has been reduced to a wrap-up episode for Prime Video/Amazon with post-production ongoing. So, Morpheus and the Endless will finish their story sooner than Neil Gaiman’s comic book readers would have preferred, and the same goes for Crowley and Aziraphale, but is there any hope of other Gaiman stories still appearing onscreen?

That’s a complicated question. Following sexual assault allegations against Gaiman that surfaced in a Tortoise Media podcast and a New York Magazine investigative report, several other projects have been shuttered.

Netflix had already cancelled Dead Boy Detectives, Disney chose to end their work on a Graveyard Book adaptation, and Dark Horse comics nixed the Anansi Boys comic book series, which would have told more stories about the American Gods-related project. However, this doesn’t address the Anansi Boys TV show that has been in the works from Amazon for several years. The limited series had finished filming, but some insight has recently arrived.

Has Anansi Boys Been Cancelled Despite Completing Filming?

Officially, the streaming gods have not announced a cancellation. However, star Delroy Lindo, who portrays West African trickster god Anansi in the series, recently told Entertainment Weekly (while promoting Ryan Coogler’s Sinners) how he doubts that Anansi Boys will ever stream:

“I don’t think that’ll ever see the light of day. It’s too bad on many levels, but I was really excited to do it.” When EW asked Lindo earlier in the conversation what he’s learned from derailed projects like this, he responded, “Don’t count your chickens, man. It’s a shame. I could be wrong about Anansi Boys. Maybe it’ll be released. This is another reason to knock on wood.” He performs the gesture again. “Because there are banana peels all over the landscape. No matter how experienced the level of talent that’s involved, one can always slip up, which brings me back to the knocking on wood thing. S— can happen, man. At any point.”

The limited TV series was presumed to revolve around Anansi and his son, Charlie Nancy, along with a long-lost brother who suddenly emerges and wreaks havoc in Gaiman’s Anansi Boys novel. Cameras finished rolling about two years ago before co-showrunner Douglas Mackinnon abruptly exited both this project and Good Omens.

Meanwhile, Gaiman continues to deny the allegations against him (and he further did so on his own website). And most recently, New York Magazine reported that he sued Caroline Wallner, who is one of Gaiman’s former employees that lodged sexual misconduct accusations against him, for allegedly violating a non-disclosure agreement.