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American Gods is slated for a 2017 premiere date.

Bryan Fuller and Michael Green have Neil Gaiman\'s blessing for their adaptation of his fantasy novel American Gods, but now they\'re itching for feedback from fans.

American Gods debuted its first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con, and a little over a week later Green and Fuller presented the series\' first Television Critics Association panel in Los Angeles. Though they didn\'t have more footage to show, the pair did talk about expanding Gaiman\'s world for the small screen. Fuller also couldn\'t resist asking critics after the panel how they felt seeing the world brought to life: did they think it is representative of the world Gaiman wrote?

American Gods Official Trailer - Comic-Con 2016

Beyond people being excited they\'re adapting American Gods, Green said this is a project he\'s had the most people tell him to not "f**k up." "It\'s rare to come into something that is passionately loved by so many people, but we are two of those people," he said. He and Fuller found it key to stick to the depiction of Gaiman\'s characters and expand on the road map he created.

A repeated refrain during the panel was the focus on the show\'s diversity, though Fuller noted that was something that came straight from the source material. Of the casting of Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Fuller said, "It was never really a question of doing otherwise for us. In order to do the book you have to cast the character who was written, which is someone who was not white."

Whenever duo had a question about a character\'s depiction for the show, they would take it back to Gaiman. In one situation, a character was described as having very dark skin, but Gaiman specified that the character was meant to be Indian, not black. Because of that, Fuller and Green made sure to cast an Indian actor.

"We\'re not color-blind casting. We\'re actually very consciously aware of color in the cast and ethnic specificity," said Fuller.

American Gods SDCC Trailer -- Rewind Theater

One big shift from page to screen is the expansion of the female characters. Fuller described the novel as a bit of a "sausage party" as it\'s about "two guys on a road trip," but the series will follow a different structure from the book. Much of American Gods took place within Shadow\'s head, so Fuller and Green\'s challenge was figuring out how to convey those ideas to an audience. In switching up American Gods not just being Shadow Moon\'s story, each episode will open with a god\'s "coming to America" moment, and then that episode will see that character "enter the narrative in a greater way." It allows the opportunity to explore more characters than the structure of Gaiman\'s novel.

"We love that structure. It gives us something really fun to build to, and it\'s really identifiable in a way," said Fuller.

Two characters in particular that the TV show will dive into more are Bilquis and Laura Moon, the latter of which Fuller and Green call "one of our absolute favorites." "That was the character that for us it was fleshed out to a good extent in the novel, and yet we got to pick up that baton and run with it," said Fuller, adding that one episode of Season 1 will work as a pilot for Laura. "We\'re very excited about telling her tale."

After spending several years working in broadcast with Hannibal, Fuller has found he and Green haven\'t hit any limitations with what they\'ve been doing on Starz. The duo explained that Starz has only pushed them to tell the best version of their story.

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"It\'s been very encouraging. The only thing we get are reminders to do our best version of the things we discussed with them. There are issues we wanted to get into -- race, gun control, gender issues -- and both Starz and Freemantle have been nothing but encouraging on it," said Green.

That said, the two self-described fans of American Gods are working to make the best adaptation of the story that they can, and working with Gaiman has been a big part of that.

"He\'s very collaborative," said Fuller. "When Michael and I were crafting the finale of the season, there were certain things where Neil was like, \'I\'m uncomfortable going to this point or this point.\' Then we had a conversation about how we would get to those points and how we could give him what he wanted but also put in a few of the things that we were driving toward. He\'s always yes-ing."

"If you loved it in the book, it will show up in the series," said Green. "It\'s about how can we build it even bigger."

American Gods is slated to premiere on Starz in 2017.

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.