Everything We Know About Netflix's 'The Sandman'
The streaming service is bringing us an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's beloved superhero comic.
For decades, its community of superfans have wondered whether a movie or television studio might make good on finally adapting The Sandman, Neil Gaiman's DC superhero comic that's barely a superhero comic and more of a metaphysical conversation on the nature of gods and human existence. The good news is that Netflix is finally making it happen, and it's coming later this year. Here's everything we know.
When will The Sandman premiere on Netflix?
After what felt like YEARS of waiting, we finally have a release date. Netflix announced during their 2022 Geeked Week that the first season of The Sandman will officially drop on Netflix on August 5. So soon!!!
Is there a trailer for The Sandman yet?
During 2022's San Diego Comic-Con—two weeks before the series release—the full trailer for The Sandman was unveiled, with all of its dreams, Dream, nightmares, and Gwendoline Christie's Lucifer, which you can watch above.
Before that, Netflix had released a short date announcement teaser (below), which gives us a little taste of what sort of dimly-lit, moody drama to expect. Morpheus, the elder god of dreams, has been missing for a quite a long time, and he's finally returning to a world that looks a lot different from the one he left.
There is also a first-look teaser, which gives us a teeny bit of footage of the first bit of the story, in which a bunch of magic aficionados perform a ritual to imprison Death itself but summon her sibling instead.
What is The Sandman about?
In 1916, a group of occultists attempt to capture and imprison the spirit of Death. Due to a mistake in their spell, they capture Death's sibling Dream—aka Morpheus, aka The Sandman—instead. Decades of chaos follow, in which all dreams have been lost and humans live in crazed fear of the night, until one day Dream escapes his magical prison and goes in search of the objects of power that the occultists stole from him. On the way, he meets up with ancient biblical figures (Cain and Abel, the devil), as well as the rest of his family of spirits (Desire, Destiny, Despair, Death) in his search for an identity that's been lost to him for years.
Who is in the cast of The Sandman?
Tom Sturridge plays Dream, ruler of a kingdom called the Dreaming; Gwendoline Christie plays Lucifer, the ruler of Hell, a much closer adaptation of the character from the comics than Netflix's Lucifer series; Vivienne Acheampong as librarian of the Dreaming Lucienne; Boyd Holbrook as nightmare The Corinthian; Charles Dance as occultist Roderick Burgess; Asim Chaudhry as Abel; Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain; Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Dream's sister Death; Mason Alexander Park as Desire; Donna Preston as Despair; Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, a relative of occult detective John Constantine; David Thewlis as John Dee, aka Doctor Destiny; Kyo Ra as Rose Walker, a victim of the Corinthian; Stephen Fry as Walker's bodyguard Gilbert; Sandra James-Young as Unity Kinkaid, who has just awoken from a hundred-year slumber; and Patton Oswalt as the voice of Dream's ally Matthew the Raven. Mark Hamill has also been cast as the voice of Merv Pumpkinhead, whose name is as good as descriptor as any.
Who else is involved with The Sandman?
The series was developed by Gaiman, David S. Goyer (Foundation, the Dark Knight trilogy), and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Young Avengers comics). Jamie Childs (Doctor Who, His Dark Materials), Andrés Baiz (Narcos, Narcos: Mexico), and Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) are among the episode directors.
Will there be multiple seasons of The Sandman?
The first season will adapt the first two volumes of Gaiman's comic, "Preludes and Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House" (Issues #1-#16), which concern Dream's escape from the magicians and search for his objects of power, journeying into Hell itself to reconnect with his long-lost siblings, and after that, figuring out who is responsible for a mysterious magical scheme destroying his creations.
Will it have any crossover with DC's Lucifer?
Seeing as, even though he's the same comic-book character, the Lucifer in this show is being played by a completely different actor, probably not.