Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green on 'American Gods'

The sprawling new Starz series, American Gods, based on the 2001 Neil Gaiman novel, is packed full of characters -- some human, some mythical.

The story follows a taciturn convict named Shadow Moon, played by Ricky Whittle, who emerges from prison and immediately finds himself employed by a mysterious and mischievous man who goes only by the name Wednesday. He is played by Ian McShane.

What Wednesday wants from this arrangement, other than a driver and some muscle, isn't immediately clear. But Shadow soon finds himself engulfed in chaos and suspects Wednesday, and perhaps some of his other-worldly friends, have something to do with it.

American Gods showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green have each had a 20-year-long writing career in the industry.

Fuller got his start writing for the Star Trek: Voyager TV show and went on to create the ABC series Pushing Daisies and the NBC drama Hannibal.

Green co-wrote the screenplay for this year's mega-hit Wolverine movie, Logan, as well as the upcoming Murder on the Orient Express and Blade Runner 2049.

They first met more than a decade ago as writers on the NBC show Heroes. Fuller and Green tell us about bonding over reading each other's scripts, the heartbreaks they've endured in network television, and why they're not holding back in their TV adaptation of American Gods. And oh yes, there's an extended conversation on male full-frontal nudity on television, and why they felt it was necessary for certain scenes in their show.