Media and Technical Boy will have larger roles in Season 2

American Gods Season 2 is on its way and a new clip released online gives a hint at who will play important roles in the civil war.

Based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman, who is now showrunner following Bryan Fuller’s departure, American Gods is set in modern America where Gods of every religion struggle to co-exist. For a while, it looked as if Season 2 would never air. Just as the Old and New Gods engage in a civil war, the humans running the series were struggling as well. The production of Season 2 was riddled with drama and behind-the-scenes arguments that resulted in showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green and actress Gillian Anderson’s departure.

Now, the season premiere is only two months away and a three-minute clip released online gives us our first sneak peek. It’s short and brief and doesn’t give much away, save for Media’s new-found importance and how mad Mr. World (Crispin Glover) is.

The absence of Fuller is very noticeable in the clip. The overly bright quick paced shots and the slap-stick comedy that opens the scene is drastically different than Fuller’s melodramatic sequences. Not to say that it’s bad, just different.

Along with sharing a brief look at the new season, the clip hints at who we’ll see more of. Mr. World doesn’t count because being a main adversary, he’s obviously going to have a strong presence in the season. No, I’m talking about Media (Kahyun Kim) and Technical Boy (Bruce Langley), the gods of television and technology, two New Gods who have only had supporting roles up to this point.

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The three-minute clip starts off with Technical Boy and Mr. World in the same clothes they were in at the end of Season 1, implying it starts off a few hours after the dramatic finale. Easter (Kristin Chenoweth) dried out the Earth’s vegetation and Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) announced himself to be Odin.

After a long and strange monologue, Mr. World announces that he needs an advertiser to sell their side of the war. He turns to Technical Boy and demands he locates his “best salesman”, which turns out to be Media. Saying that Media is going to sell the war for him suggests she’ll be bringing tools of propaganda to the table, a strategy used to poison the image of the enemy and increase hatred between sides.

Season 2 will introduce several new gods, so its possible Media has succeeded in attracting more allies.

This is the perfect opportunity to introduce New Media to the series, who is now played by Kahyun Kim after Gillian Anderson’s departure. Ironically, Media is one of the few characters who can change completely without bringing conflict to the plot. Being the Goddess of Television and Advertising, she takes on the appearance of various celebrities such as David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe, so she almost never looks the same.

This is a perfect loop-hole for a recasting, allowing a transition that fits in with the character’s love of unique guises. Anderson will be hard to replace but I’m sure Kim can fill her shoes.

Now, with Mr. World busy with his war plans, that leaves his two associates out to do the manual labor. This not only includes his advertiser but also his hot-headed deputy, Technical Boy. I’m sure Tech Boy isn’t really World’s second-in-command but he’s the only New God we’ve seen for more than 10 minutes, and he’s usually doing work for Mr. World so I’m just going to refer to him as a personal assistant.

The God of Technology, Tech Boy is more or less the personification of internet addiction and data processing. A cranked-up version of a stereotypical Millennial, who talks with attitude and vapes 24/7.

If he’s anything like real technology, then he’ll be a useful ally for Mr. World. Nothing says technology like unstoppable viruses and persistent programming. One reason why I think Technical Boy will have a more prominent role in the series than before, and from the books, is because of technology’s status as a powerhouse ruler in this current age. Anyone who wants to rule the world will benefit greatly from technology. Media and globalization shaped the modern world, but technology is partially responsible for controlling the masses.

When Gaiman wrote the book in 2001, technology was only a fraction of what it is today. The series has modified itself for the current times, and Technical Boy is one of its biggest changes. In the book he was a fat kid dressed like Neo from The Matrix and-Spoiler alert– dies around the halfway point. This probably won’t happen because Gaiman wants the show to last six seasons. He’ll have to change some things to make it that far, including holding off killing several characters who died in the book.

The trailer for American Gods Season 2 showed more of Technical Boy than the other two New Gods, continuing his habit of hogging the trio’s screentime. Judging by his strong appearance in the trailer and the job World tasked him within the clip, I think we can assume Technical Boy will be a major player in Season 2. Don’t forget he also has an alliance with Bilquis where he secured her loyalty in exchanged for a dating app (sounds weird but it’s true).

There is a scene in the trailer where Tech Boy walks in a fraternity-like house filled with similar looking young men all vaping together. Does this mean there are more Technical Boys running around? Or are they more spooks (mindless servants) he made for the war? Or are they regular humans he’s hanging out with? Honestly, it’s what intrigued me the most about the trailer because the New Gods seem incredibly anti-social, I can’t imagine them chilling with humans.

Some of the new characters we’ll be seeing this season are Mr. Town (Dean Winters) who is a spook made by Technical Boy, Mama-Ji a.k.a. Kali (Sakina Jaffrey) the Hindu Goddess of death, and Sam Black Crow (Devery Jacobs) a hitch-hiking college student.

American Gods Season 2 premieres on Starz on Sunday, March 10