Alright, Bryan Fuller, this is quite enough. Are you trying to murder us with pure joy and anticipation? Because we’re losing our ever-loving minds over American Gods already—no need to stick us with the pointy end of goodness so aggressively! But that’s exactly what the Hannibal auteur’s done with the most recent casting news for his Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s book: he’s bringing out the fandom big guns by casting Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) and Demore Barnes (12 Monkeys, Hannibal).

Joining Fuller and co-creator Michael Green’s new series, Jones and Barnes are no strangers to Fuller’s vibrantly crafted worlds of whimsy, having worked on Pushing Daisies and Hannibal, respectively. According to the announcement, Jones will embody Mr. Nancy, the human form of the West African god Anansi, known for his trickery, deception, and storytelling skills (and he usually looks like a spider!). He also just so happens to be the father of the Anansi Boys, a spin-off/sequel novel of Gaiman’s that follows Mr. Nancy’s sons. Mr. Nancy befriends Shadow (played by The 100‘s Ricky Whittle) during a visit to god-assembling-place the House on the Rock.

As for Barnes? His role is that of Mr. Ibis, co-owner of the Ibis and Jacquel Funeral Parlor in Cairo, IL. The gold-rimmed, spectacle-wearing death obsessive briefly takes Shadow under his wing in the story. As far as god-lore goes, Mr. Ibis is a writing, wisdom, and magic-overseeing god from Ancient Egypt more commonly known as Thoth. No surprise here—given his profession—Mr. Ibis is also a God of the Underworld, in charge of the Scales of Judgement. His partner, Mr. Jacquel (Chris Obi) also an Old God type typically portrayed as a dog because he’s an incarnation of Anubis, the god of mummification and the afterlife, protector of graves and all that post-mortem jazz.

The duo join an already insanely stacked cast, featuring the aforementioned star, Whittle, alongside Obi, Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday; Gillian Anderson as Media; Emily Browning as Laura Moon; Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney; Cloris Leachman as Zorya Vechernyaya; Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith; Peter Stormare as Czernobog; Bruce Langley as Technical Boy; Crispin Glover as Mr. World; Mousa Kraish as the Jinn; and Yetide Badaki as Bilquis.

Needless to say, our thirst for this show and information about it clearly cannot be quenched. Are you looking forward to American Gods? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image: Fox; NBC

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist and creator/co-host of Fangirling. Find her on Twitter (but only if you like, really want that sort of nonsense in your life).