Orlando Jones Says He Was Fired From ‘American Gods’ Because His Character Sent ‘The Wrong Message For Black America’
Orlando Jones isn’t holding back regarding his split from his Starz show American Gods.
Taking to Twitter Saturday morning (December 14), the actor claims he was fired from the series’ third season, alleging new showrunner Charles Eglee decided his character Mr. Nancy sends “the wrong message for Black America.”
“I know y’all have LOTS of questions about the firing,” Jones prefaced in a tweet. “As always I promise to tell you the truth and nothing but [love].”
According to Jones, who was a large part of season 2’s writing and producing contributions after the departure of original showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, he was fired back in September.
“There will be no more Mr. Nancy. Don’t let these m****rf*****s tell you they love Mr. Nancy. They don’t,” Jones says in the selfie video. “I’m not going to name names but the new season 3 showrunner [Eglee] is Connecticut born and Yale-educated, so he’s very smart and he thinks that Mr. Nancy’s angry, get s**t done, is the wrong message for Black America.
“That’s right,” he continues. “This white man sits in that decision-making chair and I’m sure he has many Black bffs who are his advisors and made it clear to him that if he did not get rid of that angry god, Mr. Nancy, he’d start a Denmark Vesey uprising in this country. I mean, what else could it be?”
Entertainment Weekly reached out to representatives for Starz, Fremantle, who produces American Gods, and Eglee, and according to the outlet, they have not received a comment.
In other tweets, Jones labeled Fremantle “a nightmare” that treated him “like a 2nd class citizen for doing your job [too] well.” He also claimed “they were exceptionally nasty and evil the way they did it.”
In American Gods, Mr. Nancy is an African deity who becomes a lens to address 21st century racial issues in America.
