It’s been more than a year since the cast was announced for the highly anticipated Sandman Netflix series based on the acclaimed comic book series from writer Neil Gaiman and starring Tom Sturridge as Dream/Morpheus, the titular character. After much waiting, today Netflix debuted the first Sandman trailer.
Here’s now Netflix describes the series:
There is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep — a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies. But when Dream is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for a century, his absence sets off a series of events that will change both the dreaming and waking worlds forever. To restore order, Dream must journey across different worlds and timelines to mend the mistakes he’s made during his vast existence, revisiting old friends and foes, and meeting new entities — both cosmic and human — along the way. Based on the beloved award-winning DC comic series written by Neil Gaiman, THE SANDMAN is a rich, character-driven blend of myth and dark fantasy woven together over the course of ten epic chapters following Dream’s many adventures. Developed and executive produced by Gaiman, showrunner Allan Heinberg, and David S. Goyer.
The Sandman debuted back in 1989 and instantly became a fantasy classic exploring Dream and the world of the Endless, six immortal beings, and the humans who interact with them, with sometimes tragic results.
In the past 30 years The Sandman has been one of the holy grails for media adaptation, but all the intervening time has only served to improve the technology and, realistically, the platform for the series.
Among the notable departures from the comics is the changing the Dreaming head librarian Lucien to female Lucienne played by Vivienne Acheampong. It’s a change that Gaiman as he tweeted a few months back.
Morpheus’ siblings and fellow members of the Endless, embodiments of powerful natural forces, are also featured. Fan-favorite Death played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Desire played by non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park.
John Dee (better known as the supervillian Doctor Destiny) played by David Thewlis can be seen in possession of Materioptikon, the blood-red gemstone that is in actuality Morpheus’ Dreamstone. Though Thewlis looks nowhere as horrific as Dee in the original comics, you can expect plenty of nightmare fuel if the series sticks close to Sandman #6 wherein John Dee spends 24-hours tormenting a random diner full of people.
Speaking of nightmares, the Sandman trailer gives us our first glimpse of the Corinthian played by Boyd Holbrook albeit from behind. A nightmare created by Morpheus gone rogue, the Corinthian plays a pivotal role in the second story arc of the series “The Doll’s House.” Though the trailer doesn’t showcase the Corinthian’s most notable physical feature i.e. two rows of small, jagged teeth line each eye socket, you can clearly see blood dripping from his eyes.
Though not featured in the trailer, fans will be delighted with the announcement that Mark Hamill will be voicing Mervyn Pumpkinhead!
In addition new posters were released including Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine.
The Sandman premieres on Friday, August 15 on Netflix.
Related
