American Gods returns today for its third season, and from the episodes I’ve seen so far, I can confidently say that this is shaping up to be the best season yet. Before the holidays, I spoke with Bruce Langley, aka Tech Boy, who shared a bit about his character’s arc and motivations in Season 3.
Read the highlights of our conversation below, and watch the Season 3 premiere of American Gods today on Starz.
Where does Tech Boy’s story pick up in Season 3?
At the start of the season, Tech Boy has used up eight of his nine lives as far as his boss is concerned. He needs to get a win on the board pretty quick, which leads him to be more reckless than usual. We see him in a situation where some of his toys are taken away. As a result, he has to adapt and form alliances with people that he normally wouldn’t look twice at.
We also see him in a position — maybe for the first time — where his armor is stripped away, and he has to look at the squishy, angry, scared little child that’s been his beating heart for so long. He’s got to have a little conversation with that guy, and might not like what he has to say.
One of the first things he’s tasked with is convincing Bilquis to join the new gods. What can you share about that arc?
Yetide and I have worked together since Season 1 when Tech Boy offered Bilquis a lifeline. It’s always fun when we get to hang out, and Yetide Badaki is a powerhouse to work with. There’s something to be said about getting on the dance floor, so to speak, with someone who is so good at what they do. There’s a wonderful chemistry that we have together mostly because Yetide is really good. It’s honestly so much fun.
Does Tech Boy continue to have a larger sense of himself and believe he should be more revered? And is his quest for power and influence still a driving force this season?
Yes and no. He has a somewhat different objective in terms of a certain self-realization and self-actualization arc that he goes on. It’s an important thing that you’ve touched on, and not everyone picks up on that. He absolutely feels like he should be revered more, but I don’t think that’s without grounds. Can you name another force on the planet that has positively affected the lives of more people in a tangible way over the past century? Go back to the Industrial Revolution, or the modern-day iteration of tech with the internet. Think about where we would be in lockdown if we didn’t have FaceTime and Skype, without deliveries, or access to a wealth of human knowledge via the internet.
Tech Boy is essentially used by World as a glorified knight, but there’s so much more he can do. Being confined to the structure of a chessboard is infuriating because it obfuscates how much he has contributed towards humanity. So yes, that is still a driver for Tech Boy, and something that I hope gets examined.
I loved seeing Tech Boy in Season 2 as a representative of telecommunications in its infancy. Will Season 3 delve into any more of the important advancements that Tech Boy was instrumental in throughout history?
What I will say — in the interest of not giving away anything too explicit — is that in Tech Boy’s journey, where he has to examine the squishy bits in the middle of who he is, he has to examine, whether or not he wants to, where he came from. In that journey, we get to see a little more of why he is the way he is. Maybe that’s in a period setting, and if that were the case, I would say hypothetically that it would be something that I very much enjoyed the costume for.
Did you have any final thoughts about this season you’d like to share?
A lot of pieces being moved around the board. At the start of the season, the new gods — despite their power and influence — have lost some enemy pieces. They don’t know where Wednesday is and where Shadow is, and are very motivated to find them.
There’s so much fun this season, and it was a pleasure to work with the whole team. Narratively, we’re firmly back on the rails of the book. There are going to be a lot of fan-favorite locales, like Lakeside, which was one of my favorite sections from the book. And there are a lot of big events that once they happen, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I’m excited for people to see what happens.
Photos Courtesy of Starz
