Sandman on Netflix: Finally a reality

A few weeks ago, and after years, almost decades, of waiting, Netflix officially announced the cast for the upcoming Sandman TV series. 

The show — adapted from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series, which ran from 1989 to 1996 — will follow the story of Morpheus, The Lord of Dreams. In fact, Morpheus isn't just the lord of dreams, but he is also the anthropomorphic personification of dreams. Throughout the series, we experience Morpheus' interaction with other supernatural characters as he continues to try and maintain balance in "The Dreaming".

Sandman has seen a variety of iterations perpetually stuck in production limbo, with hope for any adaptation ever coming to our screens dwindling with each passing year. Gaiman himself referred to it in multiple interviews as being some sort of "development heck". A little more hopeful than "development hell", but the taste of optimism crushing your soul that much harder.

At one point (around 2013), there was a Sandman movie in development, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as both director and actor. However, that fell apart due to creative differences between Gordon-Levitt and New Line Cinema.

After that, things went radio silent for a while. There were still talks about TV and movie adaptations of something or the other from the Sandman universe, but that has persistently existed since the mid-90s with nothing solid to show for. In fact, the movie with Gordon-Levitt is probably the closest fans ever got to the acclaimed comic book series coming to the big screens.

That is, until this year. Netflix had previously announced back in July 2019 that they were going to be adapting the comic book series into a TV show. However, fans were still sceptical. After all, they had been starved on hope for far too long.

With the announcement of the cast, along with information from Gaiman that shooting was ongoing, it seems that finally Sandman is being dreamt into reality.

Gaiman's works have been adapted in a variety of formats. From movies such as Stardust, to TV shows like Neverwhere, American Gods and Good Omens, Gaiman's body of work is rather successful irrespective of format, in many cases due to his direct involvement in the creative process as producer or writer.

As a long-time fan, I am more than excited. The casting of Tom Sturridge for Morpheus seems perfect. You would never think about Sturridge off the top of your head, but the choice feels just right. Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer is also a brilliant choice. And I can only look forward to the show's release at this point.

In preparation, I'd recommend everyone to give the comic book a read or listen to the recent Audible series that started last year. Keep your eyes and ears open, as this will definitely be a series to watch out for.

‌Aaqib is still stuck in December 2019. Send him the details on how to make a time machine to aaqibhasib94@gmail.com