Whoopi Goldberg has been roped in to play ‘Bird Woman’ in the screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The series was greenlit by Amazon Studios in 2021.
Goldberg, one of only 16 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winners, will be seen essaying the character considered as the God of Birds in Anansi Boys. One of the key antagonists, the streaming platform describes Bird Woman as “the embodiment of birds; not just beautiful stately birds in flight but the dangerous ones as well.”
“Bird Woman is the most dangerous of them all. Long ago Anansi did her wrong. Now may be her chance to turn the tables,” the press release from Amazon adds.
Published in 2005, Anansi Boys is about “a dead god and his two sons, about birds and ghosts and beasts and cops, based in Caribbean and African tales,” according to Gaiman. The author added that the idea was conceived during a 1996 conversation he had had with Sir Lenny Henry, who had later narrated the audio book. It was Gaiman’s first number one title in the New York Times Bestseller list.
Speaking about being cast in the series, Goldberg said, “I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic.”
Aside from Goldberg, the series will feature actors Malachi Kirby, Delroy Lindo, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Cecilia Noble, Ayanna Whitter-Johnson, and Don Gilet, among others.
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Anansi Boys follows Charlie Nancy (Kirby), a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father. But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that his father was Anansi: the trickster god of stories (Lindo). He further learns that he has a brother, Spider (also played by Kirby), who is determined to make Charlie’s life more interesting but makes it a lot more dangerous.
The series is set against the backdrop of contemporary London, and extends from the UK to Florida in the US, the Caribbean, and the mythical World Before Time.
It is currently being filmed at Scotland, and will stream on Amazon Prime Video.