We probably won’t see a film or television adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman anytime soon, but at least Audible and DC’s new audiobook version has a good cast. So there’s that. Audible has announced the full lineup for its exclusive production of The Sandman, based on Gaiman’s best-selling graphic novel of the same name. The audiobook adaptation debuts on July 15, with Gaiman narrating a story led by James McAvoy as Dream and Kat Dennings as Death. The Sandman co-stars Taron Egerton, Riz Ahmed, Arthur Darvill, William Hope, Josie Lawrence, Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, and Andy Serkis, with Michael Sheen as Lucifer.
For those unfamiliar, here’s Audible’s synopsis for The Sandman:
When an occultist attempts to capture the physical embodiment of Death (Dennings) in a bargain for eternal life, he instead mistakenly traps Death’s younger brother Dream (McAvoy), another of the seven god-like siblings known as The Endless who oversee aspects of human existence, including Desire (Bond) and Despair (Margolyes), Destiny, Destruction and Delirium. After seventy years of imprisonment Dream finally escapes, embarking on a quest to reclaim his lost objects of power and rebuild his kingdom, the world of sleep and imagination called The Dreaming. So begins one of the most acclaimed and successful series of graphic novels ever written.
The Sandman is being released as a multi-part audio drama, with the first part (which adapts the first three graphic novels) debuting on July 15.
22 Comments
An audio Sandman and yet no roles for the Chordettes? I call bullshit on this.
This is just the first of a series.
This is a stacked cast. James McAvoy wasn’t my first thought for Dream, but I can see it, especially after his turn on His Dark Materials. If he pulls it off, I’d very much be into him for the live action adaptation. I’m more excited about Kat Dennings as Death. That’s brilliant and also totally not who I was thinking.
This is directed at both you and the article’s headline, but please stop teasing me with the words “stacked” and mention of Kat Dennings. I don’t have that level of self-control!
I wish the live-action version was animated, and this was the voice cast for it. Partly because doing this series in live-action is just a massive gamble where you either have to change or skip over some of the most memorable moments, and partly because yes this voice cast is absolutely fire
Lemme see who Serkis is voicing. Matthew the Raven? I’m in.
I wanted to know who Andy Serkis was playing, so I tracked down a little more info about who is playing who. From wiki:“On May 13, 2020, the voice cast was announced; James McAvoy as Dream, Kat Dennings as Death, Taron Egerton as John Constantine, Michael Sheen as Lucifer, Riz Ahmed as The Corinthian, Andy Serkis as Matthew the Raven, Samantha Morton as Urania Blackwell, Bebe Neuwirth as The Siamese Cat and finally Gaiman himself as The Narrator.”Matthew. Perfect. This is going to be rad. Caw!
That’s hilarious that even in an audio-only format he’ll still portray animals
I was really interested in who Bond is, because I was really hoping that Desire would be trans and ideally non-binary. The actor is enby! Justin Vivian Bond, who I’m very much looking forward to hearing as Desire.
While I love Michael Sheen (& he has a history with Gaiman) they should have had Tom Ellis as Lucifer and keep that in universe. And if they do not have Matt Ryan as Constantine, Ima gonna riot!!!
Then you’re gonna riot.
Hey, even if it’s just you, the riot will still look cooler than the riots on Westworld.
Were he still with us, I think they might have tried for David Bowie, who was apparently part of the visual inspiration for the character.
I would have hated Tom Ellis to be involved as ignoring the fact that the Lucifer TV series started off as an adaptation of the Lucifer comic series was the only thing that made the show even remotely watchable (I was a huge fan of the comic series and the decision to turn it into a police procedural will never not be a tragedy to me). Ellis is a charming performer, but he’s not a great fit for the Gaiman/Carey version of the character. Matt Ryan, though, was a fine fit for Constantine and I would have be okay with him being used for the audio drama.
I’ve never listened to an audible audiobook. How are they produced? Just kind of standard read alongs? Or is it more produced than that (scored, sound design, etc?) I only ask because this cast really has me wishing this was being done as a radio play, rather than an audiobook. The BBC radio plays and more recently, Marvel ones, are great fun. Would love a Sandman adaptation that took that route. Coincidentally McAvoy was the lead actor in the BBC radio play adaptation of Gaiman’s Neverwhere, which was great and had a stacked as well (Natalie Dormer, Christopher Lee, Cumberbatch just off the top of my head).
Audible is like netflix for audio books. So, with different people/teams producing the content, there are different productions standards for each book. That said, most are straightforward audio books. If you’re interested in this project specifically, though…the last paragraph’s use of “audio drama” instead of “audio book” leads me to believe this will be more radio show than straightforward audio book.
Dirk Maggs, the producer/director/adapter is doing The Sandman as exactly that: a radio play. That’s what he does being the mastermind behind the 3rd – 6th iterations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for BBC 4: audio plays. It’s just going to be a radio play available through an audiobook publisher/distributor. With Dirk in the lead, it’s going to sound incredible.
It depends on the audiobook. Some are just reads (Gaiman is a fantastic reader and any books he narrates are worth picking up), while others are full-fledged audioplays.
It seems like the more British a book is, the more likely it’ll get the audioplay treatment, since radio plays never stopped being a thing over there.
I don’t remember Lucifer and Constantine being in the Sandman stories.
Really? Constantine only appears in one issue, but Lucifer is a key figure in two important story arcs and makes at least a couple other cameos. It’s Gaiman’s version of Lucifer that Mike Carey built his Lucifer series around.
It’s a great cast, and I think McAvoy could do a great job on the voice of Morpheus, though he wouldn’t be my choice for a live action adaptation. But it seems weird to remove the visual element so completely, as it’s a big part of ‘Sandman’s appeal. Even the early artwork by Sam Keith, which isn’t a perfect fit for the material, brings a lot of character to the story.
I just finally read the whole series for the first time this year, and have struggled to resist the urge to run around and tell every person I see how great it is.