Whoopi Goldberg on break from The View 'for awhile' to film Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys

Looking for Whoopi Goldberg on The View? You'll have to wait a few weeks, but don't worry — it's for a good reason. During Tuesday morning's show, co-host Joy Behar opened the discussion by addressing the fact that five women were sitting at the table — and Goldberg wasn't one of them.

"If you're wondering where Whoopi is, the girl's got a movie she's making! And she will be back whenever she finishes whatever she's doing," Behar explained. "So she's gone for awhile."

EW has confirmed that the EGOT winner will be taking a break to film Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, Amazon Prime's adaptation of Gaiman's popular 2005 book, after officially joining the cast last week. On Tuesday, The View shared an Instagram post confirming that Goldberg was filming for the rest of the month in Scotland and would return to the show on May 2.

Although Behar called her co-host's new project a movie, it's actually a six-episode TV series. Goldberg has been a longtime fan of Gaiman's, even putting his book on her 2021 summer reading list for The View. In the series, she'll play Bird Woman, a.k.a. the God of Birds who is seeking revenge on the show's titular character, African trickster God of Stories Anansi (The Harder They Fall's Delroy Lindo.) Malachi Kirby (Small Axe, Devils), Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Cecilia Noble, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, and Don Gilet also star in the series.

"I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic," Goldberg said in a statement after her cast announcement.

On Monday's show, CNN conservative political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin filled in as go-guest host. The View has not officially announced if there will be any kind of temporary co-host during her absence.

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