It’s taken over 30 years, but DC fans’ dreams are finally about to come true now that The Sandman is at last making its way to the screen. Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed mythological epic of a comic book series, which ran for 75 issues from 1989-96, was long thought to be unfilmable after various attempts at a movie adaptation failed. Netflix has proved them wrong, however, with its upcoming TV series adaptation that’s due out this year.
We got our first glimpse of The Sandman via Netflix’s TUDUM event last September, which dropped a short minute-long teaser trailer. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. After a fan page discussed the trailer on Twitter, Gaiman teased fans of all that’s to come in season one by saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
The Sandman stars Tom Sturridge in the titular role as Dream, aka Morpheus, one of the seven Endless, who is incarcerated on Earth for 100 years. When he finally escapes, Morpheus sets out to restore order to his kingdom, the Dreaming. The 11-episode debut run will adapt the first two volumes of the comic book, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House. With Gaiman developing the series alongside David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg, we can likely expect a pretty faithful adaptation.
That said, Gaiman and his team elected to switch up the genders and ethnicities of many of the supporting cast. Sturridge is joined by the likes of Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Asim Choudry as Abel, Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain, and Jenna Coleman as Joanna Constantine. Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays the fan-favorite role of Death, Dream’s sister. Other cast members include Charles Dance, David Thewlis, Joely Richardson, Stephen Fry, and Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew, Dream’s pet raven.
Given the popularity of Sandman’s source material, its flashy cast, and the huge scope of its storytelling, Netflix will no doubt be hoping they’ve found their next Witcher-sized fantasy hit. We’ll find out if it lives up to the expectation when The Sandman arrives sometime in 2022.