Over the years, countless studios have attempted to craft a live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s iconic Sandman comic book series. While many have tried and failed, the production team at Netflix has made great strides in bringing this modern classic to life as a television series. The show has already begun filming and today Netflix has finally announced their cast for their highly anticipated Sandman series.
Ever since the show was first announced back in 2019, fans have speculated just who would be playing Dream, Lucifer, and the various other members of The Endless. Sandman features many of Neil Gaiman’s most iconic characters, so the pressure was definitely on Netflix to get this right.
Sandman will be led by Tom Sturridge as Dream, better known as Morpheus to some. He is joined by Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, and Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, with Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry rounding out the confirmed cast as Cain and Abel.
Netflix has certainly made a few interesting choices with these casting announcements. A few notable departures from the comic book source material are the gender-swapping of both Lucifer and Lucienne and the race-swapping of Cain and Abel. In the original comics, all four of these characters were portrayed as white males, but this adaptation offers viewers a more diverse cast by opening these roles to women and people of color.
The casting has been well received so far, as people seem to be happy that they cast the best actors for the roles rather than trying to abide closely to the source material. These casting announcements should certainly give fans of the Sandman series a better idea of what the show will look like!
While several of Neil Gaiman’s other projects have previously been adapted for film or television, Sandman is largely considered his most popular work. Gaiman himself seems fairly excited about Sandman finally getting a proper live-action adaptation and is heavily involved with the series development.
Netflix released a statement from the writer along with the casting announcement:
For the last thirty-three years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head. I’m unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can’t wait until the people out there get to see what we’ve been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there. This is astonishing, and I’m so grateful to the actors and to all of The Sandman collaborators — Netflix, Warner Bros., DC, to Allan Heinberg and David Goyer, and the legions of crafters and geniuses on the show — for making the wildest of all my dreams into reality.
Gaiman previously confirmed that the series was planning to start filming in April of 2020, but like most other productions, the project was forced to delay due to the global Coronavirus pandemic. The series has since begun filming with numerous Covid-19 precautions in place to allow the cast and crew to work safely on the show.
Netflix’s Sandman series is set to be a modernized take on the source material. The show is set in the year 2021, and Gaiman himself has said that the show will feature elements of fan-favorite storylines like Dream A Little Dream Of Me, A Hope In Hell, The Sound Of Her Wings, 24 Hours, and Collectors all threaded throughout the eleven-episode first season of the show. The inclusion of some of these storylines also implies that we may yet see some other fan-favorite Vertigo (the comic imprint Sandman was published under) characters including Death and Constantine joining the show at some point in the future, possibly even as a surprise in this debut season.
Unfortunately for fans, we do not currently have any information as to when Netflix is planning to release the series. That said, with casting now confirmed and filming underway, it should only be a matter of time before we find out more about the upcoming series. Netflix is already said to be in the early planning stages for the second season of the show, so things are certainly looking hopeful for Sandman fans!
Are you excited for Netflix and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series? What do you think of the casting choices? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to stick around Geek Anything for more Sandman updates!
