Squawk! Whoopi Goldberg joins Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys series as Bird Woman
"She’s going to be scary" says series creator and co-showrunner Gaiman
Whoopi Goldberg has officially joined Neil Gaiman’s series adaptation of his novel Anansi Boys as the antagonist Bird Woman. She’s set to star in the Prime Video series opposite Malachi Kirby (Curfew) and Delroy Lindo (The Good Fight).
“I have been a fan of this book for a very long time, and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic,” Goldberg says in a statement.
Bird Woman is considered an amalgamation of all birds and the embodiment of the species’, at times, threatening spirit. Per the official description, Goldberg’s God of Birds is the most dangerous bird of them all, and she does not like Anansi (Lindo), the trickster God of Stories.
“When I first conceived Anansi Boys decades ago, I imagined Whoopi Goldberg as Bird Woman,” says co-showrunner, writer, and executive producer Gaiman. “I wasn’t able to meet her until 2018, when she interviewed me with some of the Good Omens team at New York Comic Con. At which point she mentioned that she had just finished listening to Sir Lenny Henry’s reading of Anansi Boys, and that it was one of her favorite books. Sometimes things feel planned and inevitable, and we are incredibly lucky. She’s going to be scary.”
Goldberg’s role was announced along with a jungle full of other animals who will appear in the series. The official descriptions for each of them follows, per Deadline: