Neil Gaiman will be writing a few scripts for the Starz adaptation of his novel, American Gods.
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Earlier this month, it was announced—to much commotion—that the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods had been greenlit as a television series for Starz. Now, in an announcement that’s sure to send the author’s fans into even more of a frenzy, it’s been revealed that Gaiman will be writing some of the episodes himself.

Producer Bryan Fuller was on hand at the Saturn Awards recently, where he accepted the Best Network Television Series award for Hannibal, mere days after the show about Hannibal Lecter was cancelled by NBC. In a video interview posted by Allison Keene for Collider, Fuller says that the writing for American Gods is in full swing, and confirmed that Gaiman is involved. “We are cranking away,” he says, “We’ve got the first two scripts written already, and it’s gonna be very exciting. It’s wonderful to be working with Neil Gaiman, and Neil Gaiman is going to be writing episodes of the show, so it’s gonna have scope, as it should.”

As Andrew Liptak writes for io9, this is not unfamiliar territory for Gaiman, who has written for TV shows such as Babylon 5 and Doctor Who. Liptak points out that while “there’s no indication just which episodes Gaiman will write” (or exactly how many, for that matter), he says on Twitter that he will be writing “some” of them “down the line:”

@Sunlionheart no, it’s Bryan fuller and michael green. But I will write some, down the line.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 28, 2015

First published in 2011, American Gods is a sci-fi/fantasy novel centered around the mysterious protagonist Shadow, set in a world where gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them. Gaiman has already expressed enthusiasm over the team working to bring his book to the small screen. Marianne Zumberge writes for Variety that he said of the adaptation, “I am thrilled, ‎scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation. The team that is going to bring the world of ‘American Gods’ to the screen has been assembled like the master criminals in a caper movie: I’m relieved and confident that my baby is in good hands.”

With every screen adaptation of a book leading to inevitable hand-wringing over how faithful it will be to the source material, the author’s active participation in bringing his own work to the small screen will surely be music to his many fans’ ears.