“The Sandman” Co-stars Excited About Series Hitting Netflix This August
“The Sandman,” a cult classic written by Neil Gaiman and a long-awaited show, is finally hitting TV screens this August.
“What I’m really excited about is that in less than two weeks, everyone is going to get to see what we made. It feels really good,” said English author Gaiman as he addressed the crowd at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). Joining him for the Q&A were cast members Jenna Coleman, Gwendolyn Christie, and Tom Sturridge.
During the world’s biggest comic convention, they whetted fans’ appetites by revealing a new trailer that depicted the Sandman manipulating dreams in a magical and mystical realm. After suddenly being captured and taken prisoner, his adventures take him through different timelines and realities to try and regain control of his world. The trailer showed Morpheus as the king of Dreams, Death, the Threshold where Desire lives, and Hell. Nightmares and mortals came to life on screen for the first time, thrilling fans.
Executive producer Allan Heinberg wanted the series to pay tribute to the original graphic novel by being “as faithful to the book as possible.” According to him, “Netflix has been incredibly supportive of that mission.”
In a recent video interview with Vanity Fair, we see Gaiman break down the trailer scene by scene. “On the one hand, we tried reproducing the comics exactly, and it didn’t quite work. And then we had to think, ‘Okay, well how will it work? What position are the arms in that doesn’t make it [Desire] look goofy?’”
The result is a show with stunning and artistic onscreen visuals, reminding us why the comic book series rose to such popular heights.
From 1989 to 1996, the publication of the series created a wave of die-hard fans all over the world and only became more famous through the years. After being picked up by Netflix in 2019, the series is an apogee of its decades-long admiration.
Tom Sturridge, who plays the central and most beloved character Dream, echoes this sentiment: “I come to this first and foremost as a fan. I care about these books so deeply. The thing I feared the most was not living up to the film that I had already made in my head.”
“Knowing that hundreds of thousands of millions of people who had already read this book, each have their own different films in their heads was – frightening. But it’s also incredibly invigorating to try and live up to those dreams,” the English actor concluded.
Lucifer, a character described by Gaiman as a “junkie angel,” is played by Gwendolyn Christie. The casting choice evidently met with the author’s approval since he’s been quoted as saying, “Gwendoline brings the junkie angel in spades.”
After playing Brienne of Tarth, a brave and loyal knight in HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the role is quite a change for Christie. She isn’t complaining though. “The idea of being the very essence of evil through these people’s eyes was the most delightful moment I could wish for,” she exclaimed.
The epic story revolves around Dream and his journey to reclaim the power and kingdom which were stolen from him. Though there are many memorable moments in the fantasy drama, fans love Dream’s character arc and how he changes as the story unfolds. Catch the ten-episode series on Netflix on August 5.
