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Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN on Netflix (TBD)
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(from Entertainment Weekly)

Dreams are becoming real. On Wednesday, Netflix unveiled a new slate of castings for its upcoming adaptation of The Sandman, based on the iconic dark fantasy comic created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg. The first batch of castings months ago gave us an idea of the major characters, and now we'll have an even better idea of what to expect from this show.

Among the many castings are several of the protagonists' mythical siblings. Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), the lord of dreams and protagonist of The Sandman, is one member of a pantheon called The Endless. Each of the seven siblings represent some core function of the universe, and all of them have names beginning with "D" (though many refer to him as Morpheus, his true name is Dream — it's just that, as the universe's chief storyteller, he's picked up a lot of other names over the years).

 

Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Cruella, The Good Place) will play Death, one of the most iconic Sandman personages and a nerd-crush character for the ages. Even if you haven't read The Sandman, you may still recognize Death's classic outfit of black tank top, Egyptian eye tattoo, and ankh necklace; it heavily influenced Goth fashion as the '90s became the 2000s, and remains a popular cosplay to this day. Death first appeared in issue #8 of The Sandman (titled "The Sound of Her Wings"), where she cheers up a morose Dream by taking him with her on her daily tour of the dying; it's often credited as an early turning point for the series that helped elevate it from dark fantasy to genre-breaking, zeitgeist-shaping work. Any adaptation of The Sandman is going to have a lot riding on its depiction of Death (Kat Dennings recently played her in the Audible adaptation).

"Hundreds of talented women from all around the planet auditioned, and they were brilliant, and none of them were right," Gaiman said in a statement. "Someone who could speak the truth to Dream, on the one hand, but also be the person you'd want to meet when your life was done on the other. And then we saw Kirby Howell-Baptiste's audition and we knew we had our Death."

 
Morpheus a.k.a. Dream is a fictional character who first appeared in the first issue of "The Sandman."
| Credit: DC Entertainment

Two other members of The Endless have also been cast: Donna Preston will play Despair, and Mason Alexander Park will play her twin Desire. Park identifies as nonbinary, making them a perfect fit for Desire — who, as the embodiment of lust and sexuality, moves effortlessly between genders over the course of The Sandman.

Other major presences have been cast as well. Fresh off his stint voicing the title character of Marvel's M.O.D.O.K., Patton Oswalt will voice Morpheus' constant companion and animal familiar, Matthew the Raven. Viewers of the short-lived Swamp Thing show on DC Universe may remember Henderson Wade played Matt Cable, the character's original human form before he dies and gets turned into a talking raven, but don't expect any overlap here.

David Thewlis (Harry Potter, Fargo) will play John Dee, a villain who challenges Dream for control of people's dreams. Though Dee doesn't stick around in the story for long, he plays a major role in one of The Sandman's standout installments, "24 Hours," which EW wrote a whole deep-dive story about in 2017. It is very exciting to imagine Thewlis taking on that material. Dee's mother, Ethel Cripps, will be played by Joely Richardson as an old woman and Niamh Walsh as a younger woman in flashback.

Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; Daniele Venturelli/ Getty Images

The Sandman begins with Morpheus' prolonged imprisonment by humans, and setting out to restore his kingdom after he escapes. But his absence has effects. One woman, Unity Kincaid, remains asleep for the duration of his incarceration. During that time, she is impregnated, and that child in turn gives birth to a child named Rose Walker, whose strange origin gives her remarkable power. Sandra James Young has been cast as Unity, while Kyo Ra will play Rose Walker. Like Death, these characters are usually depicted as white in the comics, but will be played by Black actors, signifying Netflix's desire to change things up and modernize The Sandman.

No less a personage than Stephen Fry will play Gilbert, Rose's self-appointed guardian with a strange connection to the Dreaming whose dress and mannerisms are based on author G.K. Chesterton, one of Gaiman's favorites. Razane Jammal will play Lyta Hall, a woman who becomes pregnant in a dream and changes the course of Morpheus' immortal life. Jenna Coleman, already a veteran of storied nerd franchise Doctor Who, will play Lady Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century occult adventuress and ancestor of John Constantine. Johanna appears in The Sandman chapters set in the past, but according to Gaiman, she'll also be showing up in the present in this adaptation.

Sandman_NewCastAnnouncement.jpg

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5 minutes ago, HighVoltage said:

Jenna Coleman, already a veteran of storied nerd franchise Doctor Who, will play Lady Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century occult adventuress and ancestor of John Constantine. Johanna appears in The Sandman chapters set in the past, but according to Gaiman, she'll also be showing up in the present in this adaptation.

Sandman_NewCastAnnouncement.jpg

Interesting

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1 minute ago, Bosco685 said:

I have a feeling this show is going to appeal to many people

100% agree.

I'm unfamiliar with some of the actors/actresses, but I'm all in on trusting Neil and the Netflix crew.
If this has a similar feel and production of Good Omens, I think it will succeed!

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36 minutes ago, Gatsby77 said:

How so? I literally learned what a non-binary / hermaphrodite was from reading Sandman. Forget the exact issue number but it was part of A Game of You (# 32 - # 37).

This was an integral part of Sandman characters in stories told literally 30 years ago.

i mean thats great and all but this isnt that. Its pandering. Thats my opinion. Not gonna go back and forth. 

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1 hour ago, Kevin76 said:

So Morphues's sister is black...ok got it.  :facepalm:

Yeah - I hear you - but then I remember that Death is viewed/interpreted a little (or sometimes drastically) differently by every single person.
She could pretty-much look like anyone.
But I admit that I'd have loved to have seen her cast as more of that Goth kind of looking character from the original material.

I'm very curious as to what Gaiman will add/subtract/change from the original series. Could he add in something from Dream Hunters or Overture so that it views as seamless cannon to Netflix viewers - or even material from Death's mini(s)?

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3 minutes ago, OrangeNemesis said:

i mean thats great and all but this isnt that. Its pandering. Thats my opinion. Not gonna go back and forth. 

Let me be more specific:

1) I looked it up. I learned the word / concept of a "hermaphrodite" by reading Sandman # 36 when I was 14. Had to ask my mom about it.

2) A key plot point of the whole A Game of You storyline is the lack of acceptance of a teenaged transgender woman by her conservative parents. There you have it. Whatever your views on the issue, this isn't pandering - Gaiman was writing about the difficulties facing non-binary / transgender teens in The Sandman back in 1991.

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He seems pleased

Quote

Neil Gaiman, Author and Executive Producer, 'The Sandman'

 

26 May 2021


Global


Every afternoon I get an email telling me that there are “dailies” from The Sandman ready to be watched. It's the best bit of the day. Once every couple of weeks I get an email letting me know that there's a finished episode waiting for me to watch it. It's the best bit of the month.

 

The Sandman is being made, and it's... well, it's The Sandman. Which is the best thing of all.

 

You know that The Sandman is based on my comic book series of the same name. A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he's made during his vast existence.

 

You all know that Tom Sturridge (he/him) is Dream of the Endless, Gwendolyn Christie (she/her) is Lucifer, Sanjeev Bhaskar (he/him) and Amid Chaudry (he/him) are Cain and Abel, Charles Dance (he/him) is Roderick Burgess, Vivienne Acheampong (she/her) is Lucienne, and Boyd Holbrook (he/him) is The Corinthian. 

 

But there are more parts to be announced. And I thought it would be fun to tell you about some of them, and the thinking behind them.

 

  • DEATH – Dream's wiser, nicer, and much more sensible sister. Significantly harder to cast than you might imagine (well, than I imagined, anyway). Hundreds of talented women from all around the planet auditioned, and they were brilliant, and none of them were right. Someone who could speak the truth to Dream, on the one hand, but also be the person you'd want to meet when your life was done on the other. And then we saw Kirby Howell-Baptiste's (she/her) audition and we knew we had our Death.
  • DESIRE – Dream's sibling and everything you want, whatever you want and whoever you are. Desire is also trouble for Dream. Families are complicated. We had barely started looking when Mason Alexander Park (they/them) reached out on Twitter, and threw their hat into the ring. We were thrilled when they got the part.
  • DESPAIR – Desire's twin, Dream's sister. She is the moment when all hope is gone, the bleakest of the Endless. Donna Preston (she/her) will be playing her, and her performance is chilling and sad. You feel her pain.
  • JOHANNA CONSTANTINE – Eighteenth Century occult adventuress, John Constantine’s great-great-great grandmother. This Sandman character became so popular that she even had her own spin-off series. I created her to fill the role that John Constantine does in the past. When we broke down the first season, given that we knew that we would be encountering Johanna in the past, we wondered what would happen if we met a version of her in the present as well. We tried it and the -script was sparkier, feistier, and in some ways even more fun. So having written her, we just had to cast her. Jenna Coleman (she/her) gave us the Johanna of our dreams – tough, brilliant, tricky, haunted and probably doomed. 
  • ETHEL CRIPPS – Roderick Burgess's love, John Dee's mother, is a small but vital role in the comics, but she became more important as we told our story. In the 1920s and 30s, she is played by Niamh Walsh (she/her): a betrayed and determined young woman seeking to survive. In the present day, now a woman of a hundred identities and a thousand lies, she's played by the brilliant Joely Richardson (she/her).
  • JOHN DEE – Ethel's son is dangerous. He was driven mad, long ago. Now he's out and on a quest for Truth that may destroy the world. We needed an actor who could break your heart and keep your sympathy while taking you into the darkest places. We were lucky that David Thewlis (he/him) took the part.
  • Now we're shooting The Doll's House, the second big Sandman storyline. It's the story of:
  • ROSE WALKER – a young woman on a desperate search for her missing brother, who finds a family she didn't know that she had, and a connection to Dream that neither of them can escape. We needed someone young who could make you care as she ventures into some very dangerous places. Boyd Holbrook's Corinthian is waiting for her, after all. Kyo Ra (she/her) achieves that as Rose.
  • LYTA HALL – Rose’s friend, a young widow mourning her husband Hector. Rose doesn't know that Hector has started showing up in Lyta's dreams, though. Or that strange things are happening. Razane Jammal (she/her) is Lyta, and she's terrific.
  • UNITY KINKAID - Heiress, Rose's mysterious benefactor. She has spent a century asleep. Now she's awake, having missed out on her life. She's played by Sandra James Young (she/her).
  • GILBERT – Rose Walker's debonair protector. A dab hand with a paradox and a sword cane. Stephen Fry (he/him) is a National Treasure, and we forget sometimes that he's also a remarkable actor. Seeing him in costume and make up on the dailies made me blink: it was as if the comic had come to life.
  • MATTHEW  – Dream’s trusted emissary. A raven. I expected our animals to be CGI, and was both taken aback and thrilled when the dailies started coming in, and there was Dream talking to... well, a raven. But ravens don't really talk. The question was, could we find an actor who could make you care about a dead person who was now a bird in the Dreaming – one who isn't certain what's going on, or whether any of this is a good idea? And could we find a voice performer who was also the kind of Sandman fan who used to stand in line to get his Sandman comics signed? The answer was, we could if we asked Patton Oswalt (he/him). And Patton was the first person we asked, and the first person we cast, the day before we pitched The Sandman to Netflix.

Of course, there are more delights and nightmares cast than I've listed here, and we have a few more secrets up our sleeves. I can't wait until you can start watching.

 

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17 minutes ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

Never had a problem with gender/race swapping with characters.  BUT...I really wanted to see Death as a super pale emo looking girl.

 

***Curious to see how she will look like in the show

If the creator Neil Gaiman is that high on the casting he stopped searching right after seeing her audition, there has to be something there.

Trust in Neil!

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5 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

If the creator Neil Gaiman is that high on the casting he stopped searching right after seeing her audition, there has to be something there.

this is all that matter not what anyone else thinks

if it was the studio, the producer etc, then I could see some of the things being written, but if Neil feels this is Death. That's all anyone who cares about this series should care about. This is his creation, his decision. I am fully behind it

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9 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

this is all that matter not what anyone else thinks

if it was the studio, the producer etc, then I could see some of the things being written, but if Neil feels this is Death. That's all anyone who cares about this series should care about. This is his creation, his decision. I am fully behind it

Yep

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To elaborate a little more on the casting - we comic fans complain all the time about how ‘if only the comic creators were involved. Then XYZ movie/tv show wouldn’t be such a heap of dung!’

Well - we’ve got Gaiman directly involved, running the show on season one, making casting decisions & knee deep in daily’s and storyline.

If you loved and believed in the original content *from Gaiman* then have some faith in him now.

Gaiman said over a year ago that this would be a little different, since we’re 30 years down the road from the print material.

Tighten up your saddles and get ready for the ride.

If it sucks, *then* you can nuke Neil. 

I think it’s gonna be good.

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