
Age: 83
male
Ian David McShane (born 29 September 1942) is a English actor. His television performances include the title role in the BBC series Lovejoy (1986–1994), Al Swearengen in Deadwood (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, and Mr. Wednesday in American Gods (2017–2021). For the original series of Deadwood, McShane won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. As a producer of the film, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. His film roles include Harry Brown in The Wild and the Willing (1962), Charlie Cartwright in If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Wolfe Lissner in Villain (1971), Teddy Bass in Sexy Beast (2000), Frank Powell in Hot Rod (2007), Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), and Winston Scott in the John Wick franchise (2014–present). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian McShane, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Billions of years ago, a cataclysm split the planet Urgrund in two, forming the twin planets of New Genesis, a sunlit utopia, and Apokolips, an industrialized wasteland. Their populations became known as the New Gods, the immortal denizens of the cosmos who existed outside the constraints of earthly time and space. Things were far from peaceful for the New Gods of either planet, and soon they found themselves consumed by war. The ruler of New Genesis, Highfather, eventually brokered peace with the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid, by orchestrating an exchange of their sons. Highfather's son, Scott Free, was given over to the torture pits of Apokolips, while Darkseid's son, Orion, was released to the relative luxury of New Genesis. The treaty lasted for a time, but sadly, Darkseid's lust for power was not so easily sated. He used the respite of peace to bolster his forces and begin his hunt for the mythical Anti-Life Equation, a weapon that would give him the power not only to destroy New Genesis, but to bend all life in the universe to his will. And after Scott Free escaped Apokolips alongside former Female Fury Big Barda to make a new home on Earth, there was nothing keeping Darkseid from mobilizing yet again. Apokolips and New Genesis are at war once again. This is an original show by me that takes place before my other DCCU stories.
