Readers desperately hope/pray/demand their favorite characters, places, and scenes make the cut any time a beloved novel gets adapted for the screen. Often though those recreations fail to live up to the enormous expectations fans have for them. That wasn’t the case when American Gods visited the most memorable locale from Neil Gaiman’s novel, the very real attraction known as The House on the Rock. That absurd and magical piece of Americana in Wisconsin wasn’t just everything we always imagined; it was somehow even more amazing. Now explore its incredible history and the important role it played on the show in a featurette from the home release of the show’s second season, as Neil Gaiman and the cast explain why the gods themselves would hold their most important meetings there. And we have your exclusive first look at it.
In this behind-the-scenes video, Neil Gaiman, Ian McShane, and Ricky Whittle discuss what it was like to film at a place that didn’t seem like it could possibly exist based on its description in the novel. It is most certainly real though, and even wilder than we thought it would be, possibly. As Ricky Whittle points out, because Neil Gaiman had to tone it down for the book to make it more believable.
Readers have been waiting to visit this strange tourist attraction since 2001. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait that long on the show. After The House on the Rock teaser in the season one finale, the season two premiere took us to the site of Alex Jordan Jr.’s larger-than-life building full of oddities, which first opened in 1959. It was worth the wait.
We always want to see the best parts of our favorite books make it to the screen, but it’s not often those moments are as good as we always hoped they would be.
The second season of American Gods comes to Blu-ray and DVD on August 20.
Featured Image: Starz
