Neil Gaiman, the creator of the forthcoming Netflix series The Sandman, is explaining some of the lore of the fantasy series, including what the deal is with the titular character’s god-like siblings, The Endless.
In a featurette about the show that was released on YouTube, Gaiman and the other executive producers of the show also shared how they approached adapting the legendary and richly complex comic book series — originally penned by Gaiman — for the small screen.
“Sandman, also called Dream, is one of the seven Endless,” Gaiman explained in the video. “Immortal beings in some way more powerful than gods. They’re a family.”
Some of the other family members include Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death, Mason Alexander Park’s Desire, and Donna Preston’s Despair. The titular character, Tom Sturridge’s Dream, is the man who rules over the surreal stories that unfold in people’s minds when they’re asleep and he is the personification of the phenomenon itself.
When Dream, aka Morpheus, is held captive by an overly ambitious magician in 1916, he remains as a prisoner for a century. Sturridge explained that this first season of The Sandman will focus on Dream escaping from his imprisonment and “embarking on a journey to reclaim his power and his identity in a world that’s completely changed.”
Alan Heinberg, the showrunner and executive producer for The Sandman, explained part of what will make the first season of the show unique will be the fact that “the first six episodes, for each of them, there’s a different world and a different cast, so it’s almost like six little movies in a row.”
If you’re not already familiar with The Sandman comics, the series brings to life characters from classic mythology, legends, history, and religious figures, all of whom are woven into the plot. This is because the Sandman is not only the lord of dreams, but also stories themselves.
The Sandman comes to Netflix on Aug. 5.
