Prepare For 'The Sandman' to Haunt You
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If you count yourself a fan of The Sandman, Neil Gaiman's epic fantasy comic book series, you've probably had a tough few years. Maybe even a decade. The Sandman, a sprawling epic that is considered graphic novel canon, has had a fittingly hellish road to the screen. Thankfully, in 2019, Netflix swooped in and signed a deal to make The Sandman a TV series.
Check out what Gaiman himself had to say about how difficult it was to get a green light on a fittingly great adaptation of The Sandman: "I didn’t have faith that we’d always get here, but I had faith that the important thing was to stop bad versions being made." Gaiman told Total Film. "Once a bad version is made, you never quite come back from that. It may sound silly, but when I was 14 or 15, my favorite comic was Howard The Duck... And then A New Breed Of Hero came out. Howard The Duck became a bad joke. I never wanted that to happen to Sandman and I saw scripts that would have made that happen.”
At long last, all 10 episodes of The Sandman will hit Netflix this week. Until then, there's a brand-new trailer to tide you over—but first, here's a quick debrief to prepare yourself for the return of the king.
When will The Sandman premiere and who is in the cast?
August 5! Right around the corner. As for cast, get ready for this list. First of all, Patton Oswalt and Mark Hamill joined the series in voice roles, as Matthew the Raven and Mervyn Pumpkinhead, respectively. (Awesome, right?) The main live-action cast features stars Tom Sturridge as Morpheus/Dream, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, and Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian.
British comedy legend Stephen Fry will also be along for the ride as Gilbert. Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Killing Eve) will play the personification of Death, and Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) will appear as Johanna Constantine—an ancestor of DC Comics' cynical occult detective Jone Constantine.
What does the cast have to say about the The Sandman?
Gaiman excitedly told Total Film that Netflix was able to "punch above our weight on casting," since there were "people who love Sandman and desperately want to be in it."
Sturridge, nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in 2014 for his leading role in Orphans, gushed to IGN that he was, "an enormous fan" of the Sandman comics and that it was "a piece of literature that I care about so deeply."
"The first season of Sandman is unique in that the first six episodes, for each of them, there's a different world and a different cast," showrunner Allan Heinberg explained in a Netflix preview. "It's almost like six little movies in a row."
Where can I see The Sandman trailer?
Netflix had been pretty hush-hush about the series—but the platform commandeered San Diego Comic-Con's famous Hall H for a panel in mid-July and dropped a much better look at what's to come. While the date announcement preview was heavy on Morpheus and his return, the new footage sets up the being he'll face off against: The Corinthian. We also get a bit of world-building for the famously thick lore of the series, hearing about how dreams and nightmares of this universe work, as well as how humans will find themselves in danger amidst all the subconscious crossfire. Gwendoline Christie's Lucifer Morningstar appears in the trailer, too, and you know what? She simply looks awesome. No notes.
For longtime fans of The Sandman, Gaiman has confirmed that the Netflix series's first season will cover the first two graphic novels. You can sleep well (!) knowing that Gaiman himself has been involved in the production of The Sandman, and has given the adaptation his seal of approval. "For 32 years, Sandman was the thing in the comics. This year, it's becoming real," Gaiman said in a behind-the-scenes Netflix preview. "All of your dreams and all of your nightmares will be there."
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