American Gods: Dane Cook joins cast

Dane Cook has joined the cast of Starz’ upcoming TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel, American Gods.

The comedian will play Robbie, the best friend of Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who looks after Shadow’s wife Laura (Emily Browning) while Shadow serves his time in prison. Upon his release, Shadow relies on Robbie to keep his job at a gym for him. Betty Gilpin (Nurse Jackie) has been tapped to play Robbie’s wife, Audrey.

American Gods follows Shadow upon his release from prison, whereupon he meets a mysterious stranger named Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and is instantly pulled into an ongoing war between old gods like Wednesday, who were first brought to the country centuries prior by a dying population of immigrant believers, and America’s own set of new gods like Media and Technical Boy (the deity of all things digital), who are equally desperate to eat up humanity’s attention.

Get a sneak peek through EW’s handful of first looks at Technical Boy and Shadow and Wednesday’s barroom encounter with a leprechaun.

American Gods will premiere on Starz in 2017; Gaiman, Bryan Fuller, and Michael Green are executive producing.

Deadline first reported the casting news.