Who will Marilyn Manson play in American Gods Season 3?

Singer-songwriter Marilyn Manson lands a multi-episode role in American Gods Season 3 as one of Mr. Wednesday’s many employees.

Despite a rocky production and a rough start into its second season, the Starz TV series based on the book by Neil Gaiman, American Gods was renewed for a third season in February and is looking at a possible summer 2020 release date. Personally, I felt that Season 2 was a bit of a letdown. It didn’t seem to know where it was going, but that’s just my own feelings about it.

Lots of people loved Season 2 and it did have its moments, such as the many engrossing new Gods that were briefly introduced during its eight-episode runtime. The series holds a pretty heavy guest list.

Argus Panoptes (Christian Lloyd), Baron Samedi (Mustafa Shakir), Maman Brigitte (Hani Furstenberg), and Iktomi (Julian Richings) were some of the curiously shown one-episode wonders we never got to see again and then there were others such as Mama-Ji (Sakina Jaffrey), Czernobog (Peter Stormare), and Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones) that appeared more than once but were criminally underused. Sometimes there are too many Wednesday monologues and not enough Nancy stories.

The detailed voyages in the world of Gods and Goddesses is one of the many reasons the series remains as intriguing as it is, and now Marilyn Manson has been added to the cast as yet another character from mythology. Most famously known for his music and oddball personality, Manson a.k.a Brian Hugh Warner isn’t a total stranger to acting. His film credits include the FX series Sons of Anarchy, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Party Monster and the series Salem.

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According to Deadline, Manson will appear in four episodes as Johan Wengren, a “berserker” who’s also the lead singer of a Viking death metal band called Blood Death, which means we might get to hear him play music (good news for me!). Wengren and Blood Death will allegedly serve as a source of power for Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) in his war against the New Gods.

Showrunner Chic Eglee described the role as original and disturbing, meaning Manson was probably just playing himself.

"“Bringing his specific energy, wit and boundless enthusiasm for all-things-Neil Gaiman to the role of Johan, a Norse ‘berserker’ in service to Odin, his performance promises to be disturbing, original and uniquely entertaining,”"

What is a berserker?

So, who exactly is Manson playing? The earliest known reference to the berserkers can be found in the ninth century Skaldic poem “Hrafnsmál“, where a Valkyrie and a raven discuss the life and martial deeds of King Harald Fairhair.

"I’ll ask of the berserks, you tasters of blood,Those intrepid heroes, how are they treated,Those who wade out into battle?Wolf-skinned they are called. In battleThey bear bloody shields.Red with blood are their spears when they come to fight.They form a closed group.The prince in his wisdom puts trust in such menWho hack through enemy shields."

Fierce Norsemen that symbolized uncontrollable rage and bloodlust, the Viking warriors known as the berserkers were an unstoppable force that fought in a trance-like fury. Said to have had super-human strength and incredible reflexes, they were more comparable to wolves than humans. Known to howl and growl like beasts in battle, froth at the mouth and charge their enemy in a blind frenzy.

Their name of Berserker, a term which means “bear coat” in Old Norse, came from their habit of wearing bear and wolf pelts on the battlefield, a scare tactic that made them appear even more inhumane than they already were. In addition to their strength, they were said to be nearly indestructible, immune to both fire and all blades and so vicious that no weapon could break their battle trance.

Of course, the supernatural part of the legend is a stretch from reality, but the berserkers were indeed real. In medieval Norse and Germanic history and folklore, the berserkers were members of an unruly warrior unit that worshipped Odin and were used as bodyguards for the royal court as well as “shock troops”.

Their famous violence and rage are now thought to have been drug-induced rather than natural-bred or supernatural. Botanists believe that berserker behavior was possibly caused by alcohol, hallucinogenic mushrooms or the plant known as bog myrtle, one of the main spices in Scandinavian alcoholic beverages.

If I was going to cast someone as a bloodthirsty soldier that fought with pure animalistic rage, I wouldn’t pick Marilyn Manson. When I heard he got cast in American Gods, I imagined something more along the lines of God of Death or Chaos, but I think he can pull it off. I’m just wondering if they’ll show him play any music and if so, will he write it himself?

American Gods Season 3 has yet to start production and doesn’t have a release date yet but is likely to premiere sometime in the summer of 2020.