Just going by pictures on line he looks typical white with little that hint to any Blackness.
I pictured Shadow as more Black-ish.
That said I just reread the first chapter and the guard, Wilson, asks him “What are you, a spic, Gypsy … maybe you got nigger blood …” so clearly bump’s “some sort of indeterminate ethnicity, or possibly part black” is more on target.
I’m not familiar with this work, but if casting directors can make the major protagonists in The Last Airbender white, I’m sure they can figure out a way to make this dude white as well. 
Laura Moon - Linda Florentino.
Mr. Nancy – Don Cheadle.
Mr. Ibis – Tim Roth. (lol)
Easter – Kristen Bell.
Hinzelmann - Ian McKellen.
Maybe it’s just me, but I imagined Eostre as looking like a somewhat chubby blonde hippie with big boobs. Almost a Rubens or Titian painting come to life, but in the guise of a woman with flowers in her hair, a peasant blouse, and no bra.
No idea what actress meets that criteria, but that’s what I had in mind.
I totally pictured Easter as Mimi Kennedy (specifically as Dharma’s mom from Dharma and Greg) but she’s older now. Or Kate Hudson as Penny Lane.
I can totally see Don Cheadle as Mr Nancy. Other possible candidates: Mos Def and Orlando Jones
It’s made quite clear that Mr Ibis (and Mr Jaquel) are now perceived as POC who fit into their Black community (Ibis is actually described as “brown” and also as looking like either a Black person or a White person with a dark tan, Jaquel is definitely described as “dark-skinned” and darker than Ibis) but previously were considered just swarthy exotic non-Blacks. Roth isn’t that ambiguous, IMO.
Kirsten Vangsness of Criminal Minds, maybe?
Yes, I got the hippie vibe too, but the written portrayal that stuck with me was that you couldn’t quite fix on whether she was young or old and that’s why I thought right now Bell would be great for it. I definitely got the flowers in her hair vibe too. 
True true true. I was having a bit of a laugh. Mr. Ibis is meant to represent, according to wikipedia, not me, (I wouldn’t get that reference), Thoth. hence T.Roth + lol)
Christina Hendricks?
Early in the book one of the prison guards asks if he has any black in him and Shadow answers that he doesn’t know. I’ve met a handful of people in real life who I wasn’t sure what their racial background was.* I assume Shadow is kind of like that. He doesn’t really look black, you might mistake him for white, but there’s some way he still doesn’t come off as being white.
*In so far as my culturally biased conceptions on race were concerned. I realize there’s no objective criterion.
Yeah, but not so overtly sexual as Joan on “Mad Men”. Same kind of body though! 
Kirsten Vangness isn’t a bad choice- longer hair maybe, Kristen Bell works for just about everything, except the whole fertility idol figure part.
So more early Saffron?
My wife and I just wrapped up watching “The Wire” this weekend, and every time I saw Lance Reddick I kept thinking of this thread and thinking he needs to be cast as someone, though I’m not sure who it should be.
Or just add glasses.
Shadow’s defining characteristic, to me, is his self-effacingness. He’s the quiet guy in the corner that you don’t notice at first; when you do, you say “Oh! Big guy! Funny, I never noticed…” Doesn’t put himself forward. He is, in fact, a shadow. One of the themes of the book is him coming into himself.
Both Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, I think, could do this quiet stillness that is so central to Shadow’s character.
As for other characters, Helen Mirren for the youngest Zorya (Zorya Utrennyaya, I think she was), and Jonah Hill for the Technical Boy.
It’s been a while since I read the book, but for some reason, I pictured Eoster as looking more like Jennifer Coolidge.
Maybe Manu Bennettfor Shadow? He might be too short (only 5’ 11") and too good looking though.
Agreed. There’s been a lot of emphasis placed on Shadow’s race, but the first thing I think of when I think of Shadow is his demeanor: world-weary, moving from place to place out of sheer inertia and stubbornness. And most of all, not “pretty.”
Speaking of not pretty, who for Mad Sweeney? I’d hope that Sweeney would be manic, and so decrepit that viewers should wonder if they can smell him through their television. Maybe someone from Sons of Anarchy?
And even though American Gods is much darker than Anansi Boys, please let Mr. Nancy’s whimsical nature come through in casting.
As I said before, don’t underestimate Hollywood’s penchant for whitewashing. I seriously would not be surprised if they excised everything dependent on race from the script for “simplicity and controversy” reasons and cast a white guy in the lead. Might that be going too far, even for them? Maybe… but maybe not.
As for casting a lead who’s “not attractive”… Well, good luck with that.
A younger version maybe, like around the “American Pie” age. Or even younger- I was surprised that she was that hot as the cop in “Night at the Roxbury”.
And yeah, early Saffron is kind of my idea of a fertility goddess, or at least sex goddess anyway.
Bryan Fuller says he won’t cast a white man for Shadow. Really, this whole series pretty much has to be non-white actors.
Colin Farrell could do Mad Sweeney. He doesn’t have the height (I don’t think), but he has the dissolute fey charm, and he can very easily look like he hasn’t showered in a year. Matthew McConaughey, same thing.
Donald Sutherland would be good for Mr. Wednesday, and I’ve always seen Jennifer Aniston as Media.
Mr. Nancy really requires an elderly vaudevillian, like Nipsy Russell or Scatman Crothers. But based on the way he plays Pops on “blackish”, Lawrence Fishburne might be able to pull off the role.
Right now Starz is doing a fantastic job with “Outlander”; and one of the breakout stars is a brooding, grim-faced Scotsman named Graham McTavish. He was also Dwalin in “The Hobbit”, and, assuming he could get the accent right, he would be a very impressive Czernobog.
The big question that precedes all these, though, is: which characters will be included? As big and sprawling as the novel is, I can see Fuller cutting a lot - the whole Lakeside episode, for instance, which means no Hinzelmann, Margaurite Olsen, Sam Black Crow, or Chad Mulligan. And I can’t imagine he’ll shoot the interludes, like the murder of Bilquis, or the Arab salesman and the djinn taxi driver, or even the nameless god. So who are the essentials?
Shadow, obviously.
Mr. Wednesday
Mr. Nancy
Czernobog
The Zorya sisters
Bast, Horus, Jacquel and Ibis
Laura Moon
Mad Sweeney
Low Key Lyesmith
Mr. Town
Whiskey Jack (who cannot be anyone other than Graham Greene)
Buffalo Man
The Technical Boy
Media
Who am I missing?
