Netflix and Neil Gaiman finally unveil the first look at The Sandman TV series
The Sandman is based on Neil Gaiman's graphic comic book series of the same name
Aux News The Sandman
For those counting down the days until Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series (in production, in one form or another, for decades at this point) arrives on Netflix, your thirst is finally being quenched. At the streaming platform’s Tudum global fan event today, Gaiman, along with actors Tom Sturridge (Dream) and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Death), revealed the mind-bending first look at the long-awaited fantasy series. The series is based on the author’s graphic comic book novels of the same name, which were first published by DC Comics from 1989-1996. It will blend modern myths, contemporary fiction, and historical legends in a dark, fantastical series.
Like the comics, the show opens in the distant past and follows Dream (Sturridge), one of the seven Endless, immortal siblings who represent various parts of metaphysical existence. At the opening of the original comics, Dream is captured in an occult ritual and, after being held captive for 105 years, he escapes in and sets out to restore his kingdom of the Dreaming. On the plus side, it looks like he missed all of 2020—lucky fella.
The first clip from the series—introduced by Sturridge, who is really nailing the “Intense, brooding dude” vibe—walks through those opening moments, including our first glimpse at Sturridge as Dream himself.
The Sandman has a stacked cast lineup. Game Of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie plays Lucifer. Gaiman has previously stated he considered Tom Ellis for the role after he’s played it for six seasons on Lucifer, but the show’s character is too distinct from the books, and The Sandman’s Lucifer had to be different.
Boyd Holbrook plays the Corinthian, Charles Dance is Roderick Burgess, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhary play Cain and Abel, David Thewlis is Doctor Destiny, Jenna Coleman is occult detective Johanna Constantine, Stephen Fry plays Gilbert, and Patton Oswalt voices the raven Matthew.
The Sandman’s premiere date is still TBA.
Update, 12:27 p.m., 9/25/21: True to Howell-Baptiste’s word, Netflix has now started unveiling posters showing off the various members of the Endless on its social media accounts. Here’s our first look at her as Death, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, and a clearer look at Sturridge as Dream:
94 Comments
Its certaintly got that Netflix aesthetic. Naesthetix?
Thank goodness you didn’t portmanteau is the other way: Aesthflix said out loud conjures up some pretty definite images, let me tell you.Speaking of images! This looks good! DRAMATIC. EPIC. DRAMPIC! EPIATIC!
Let’s not print any business cards…
It’s not the pronunciation I had a problem with.
Aesthetflix
so you’re saying it will be too dark and in low resolution so my screen looks like digital soup?
What’s not to like? Perfect teaser ripped straight from the classic books.
Sandman has been in my head for decades now and trying to enjoy this on it’s own merits is next to impossible for me, but agree this brief peek looks promissing.
Honestly, I like that audio-play adaptation so much that this being good will be almost like a bonus.
I’ve heard good things about that and the cast is impressive. Yet to try it though.
Does McAvoy play Dream with his Scot accent or English? Either way he’s great.
What’s with the normal human eyes though
Unfortunately, only humans auditioned for the role.
Sadly, all of the actors who auditioned were human.
Gaiman has said that they tried several CGI/contact lens tests to give Dream starry eyes, but they all ended up interfering with Sturridge’s performance.
Why would CGI interfere with his performance when it’s applied after the fact? And if he’s talking about the expressiveness of his eyes then surely they could’ve split the difference and just made the irises starry.
Because he may have been relying on the direction his irises were pointing to convey stuff.
Right, and that’s an issue if they do like in the comics and make his entire eyes black and starry. But if they just blacked out the irises themselves and made those starry, he’d still be just as expressive.
I’m really looking forward to the Dee episode where he mind controls everyone in a restaurant. My favorite chapter.
That cloak and helmet look pretty fuckin good
I have seen “comic book” and “graphic novel” but never “graphic comic book novel.”
I guess they’re hedging their bets. I still would call Sandman a comic book (that was collected in graphic novels? Sure, I guess…) but…
Dream is rockin’ the Blue Steel look.
Rarely do I feel threatened by cheekbones, but well, here we are.
It looks to me like he’s going to step out of the tub and explain what it sounds like when doves cry.
Maybe you’re just too demanding.
by the time he duels Chorozin in hell, it’ll be upgraded to magnum.
But one thing I still don’t get … why male models?
He is clearly doing Le Tigre.
I think Dream is getting the black lung.
Huh, did not expect it to be that close to the source material. We’ll see how it goes
I don’t anything about Sturridge but dude’s a dead-ringer for Peter Murphy so …good casting!
Read all the sandman stuff about 20 years ago. Loved it at the time. Cant remember a thing about it anymore though.
I’m looking forward to Gwendoline Christie’s portrayal of Satan but I fear if they go with suave, white suit and Bowie haircut, she’ll end up stepping into Tilda Swinton territory. Not that that’s a bad thing but it’s just kinda overdone at this point.
The whole ‘Lucifer looks like David Bowie’ thing started from Gaiman’s work though, incidentally. So it’d make sense.
They seem to have moved away from making Death a Goth girl, but maybe Goth girls aren’t really a thing these days?
if this leaked photo is to be believed Death is still goth:
I’m not sure I’d call that Goth…
It looks just like what she wore in the comics though.
Thinking of it as ‘goth’ probably depends on what you think of as goth. The pants and tank top aren’t especially goth-y in and of themselves, apart from being black. (Platform boots, JNCOs and trenchcoat – that’s what I remember a lof of goth people wearing in high school in the ‘90s) Death’s hair and makeup were the most goth parts of her appearance, the clothes were enough that they accentuated it but they aren’t the sort of thing that’s going to be a goth look in and of themselves.
Right, I think this was why my immediate reaction was that I wouldn’t see someone dressed like that and think “they’re a goth”. I’m fine with it though 😛
I agree with you that just wearing black pants and a tank top isn’t a huuuuge goth look compared to some of the getups I glimpsed when I went to see the Cure back in 2013 or so. However, Death from the comic books constantly got called “ a cute upbeat goth girl” and I’ve seen plenty of people complaining on facebook that she is no longer a “cute upbeat goth girl” and I was like, she’s wearing the exact same outfit, so I guess their definition of goth also has to include “pale and caucasian” but I agree with you that hair and makeup could factor into the overall goth aesthetic. But for me, it is her personality that is most important to really nailing Death.
Whereas Sturridge looks like he already has Dream down, because as I recall, especially right after his escape from captivity, he was a bit wooden and overly formal in his speech, otherworldly, like he’s relearning the language after a century of captivity (even though that’s just the blink of an eye for an Endless) and Death has a much more naturalistic tone. So her personality is a lot more important to her character, rather than Dream, who is kind of marked by a lack of personality, he rarely exhibits any strong feelings early on (except maybe anger and righteous fury).
A lot of ‘subcultural’ styles have some crossover with the mainstream, and judging the clothes as being part of, or not part of, that particular subculture styling depends on other factors of the wearer.For instance: black boots, white t-shirt, a black motorcycle jacket and ripped jeans isn’t an outfit that is inherently punk rock. But if the person wearing it has facial piercings and spiky hair, then it is. As opposed to a denim jacket that’s covered in safety pins, patches and painted slogans which is pretty much explicitly and exclusively punk.
Other than the belt and the gloves, which she may as well wear on camera, and the fact that we can’t tell if she wears eye make up in that blurry image, the look is pretty much spot on.
That’s not goth. At all.
k. First season covers the first 8 issues and that’s what Death wore in the Sound of Her Wings:
Thank you. There’s more than a little racism mixed in with some of the criticism of Howell-Baptiste as a character, especially with the shitty “goths have to wear pale make-up” take I keep seeing. Black women who are into goth constantly get criticized because folks are so focused on the this white girl archetype. Looking at the long shot, they’ve 100% nailed the clothes from the comic. Looking at the character poster, I would have liked more dramatic eye make-up but it’s also hard to really tell what they’ve done. If you google “goth black women” there are some really nice examples of how to do goth make-up looks on dark skin.
Looking at the character poster, I would have liked more dramatic eye make-up but it’s also hard to really tell what they’ve done.Gaiman’s talked about this on his tumblr:September 25th, 2021 at 11:32PM
phantomchick asked:I’m excited for Sandman! But I’m disappointed that Death doesn’t have her eye tattoo as I love that part of her character design, if it’s to do with colour palette couldn’t it have been done in silver? Was there a reason for the choice to leave it out?neil-gaiman
Death doesn’t do the eye of Horus make-up (it’s make up, not a tattoo) until Season of Mists.Here’s her initial appearance in Sandman 8
Here she is in Sandman 13And Sandman 20She doesn’t add the curlicue until she reluctantly gets dolled up for the fancy party in Sandman 21Everybody involved is very detail-conscious, don’t worry.So the takeaways here are:Yes, Death will have the Eye of Horus eye makeup in the series, just not right away, andFamous authors use blogs to procrastinate just like the rest of us
I mean, she’s dressed like Death in the source material. The hair is different, admittedly less “goth”, but I’d argue it works. In the end, it all rests on the performance, but I’d say the actress in that outfit looks the part.
It’s completely Goth, and I say that as someone who was wearing that kind of stuff when the comic came out. It’s literally what she wore in the comics.
I guess it’s partly a sign of changing times–maybe in 1990 the outfit alone would have been goth, but it’s relatively… normal now? I usually associate someone who identifies as goth with the makeup, etc (which as pointed out, would not really work here). Anyway, it works for Death, I’m happy.
Normalization of the look may definitely have a lot to do with it. I really hope they do go with some more gothy make-up, like a good dramatic cat-eye, but we’ll see.
I don’t think wearing black clothes immediately signifies someone as being Goth
Bad casting there. They needed a heavyweight for Death, imo, and this actress is not that.
All we can see of her outfit is that she’s wearing a black leather jacket, which fit right in with goth aesthetics, or did when I was coming up in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Yes, but the goth girls I knew at the time (and the character in the comics) paired it with pale makeup with dark rings around the eyes and mouth to suggest a skull (which I realize probably don’t work if you aren’t white).
Word of God disagrees. 😉
I remember reading in a forward to one of the trade paperbacks where they have interviews and recollections of their drafting process how insistent Gaiman was about Lucifer looking like Bowie. And the artists really nailed it. So I don’t mind if they veer into Tilda Swinton territory, cause her and Bowie joked about how much they looked alike. And with Constantine as Sting and Dream as Robert Smith, quite a lot of musical talent in the Sandman books.
Sorry, but ‘Lucifer looks like David Bowie’ thing started with horny renaissance painters.
I’m looking forward to the inevitable forced ironic use of The Chordettes song:Because god is dead and this is the world we live in now.
I’ll take that over Metallica any day.I wouldn’t be surprised if they went with the Richard Cheese cover instead:
It will be a slow version by Rob Zombie.
Plus, I feel Tilda’s the kind who’ll cut ya if you step on her corner. I know I shouldn’t worry about Gwendoline Christie in a physical altercation, she’s taller and looks to be times and a half Swinton’s bodymass, but somehow Swinton still looks more dangerous.
It’s David Goyer, so it’s going to be shit.
He’s doing great with Foundation so far, so it’s almost as people are able to evolve and improve with experience.
I’ve not seen Foundation, but I’ve also not heard anyone I respect say it’s better than meh. But sure, thirty years into his career he’s suddenly going to be good. That happens all the time.
I just want to say I’ve really been enjoying Audible’s audio adaptation of the Sandman comics, which has its own amazing cast. Act II just came out and it’s terrific. But I’m sure I’ll enjoy this very different adaptation as well. I’m guessing it won’t be so literal a reading of the books.
If it’s not too much to ask, please, I would like to ask that you GIVE THIS TO ME RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!
ahem. Looks fantastic.
Do I dare reading the replies to the Death poster.
Overwhelmingly positive so far, but as usual expect the racist ones to get the most attention.I would have liked to have seen a younger, more petite actor in the role. (Gothier too, but that’s on production design, not casting.) But it doesn’t really matter who I would have cast and as has been said, the Endless can appear in endless variations. Maybe her performance will impress me so much I’ll end up not caring what she looks like.
Flut flut, indeed.
The hair is not quite Robert Smithy enough.Otherwise it looks good.
hoping Sturridge is less Stuart Townsend-like than he has come across heretoforecautiously optimistic
I haven’t read these comics in decades but I preferred the ‘90’s reboot of “Shade, The Changing Man” over Sandman. (I liked “Animal Man” too). Not that anyone was asking but my fave comics were books by artists like Charles Burns, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge, Mark Schultz. Haven’t read any of those in decades but I really enjoyed them at the time.
This is a promising start. Sturridge looks nicely inhuman.
Desire is giving me some serious True-Blue-era Madge-vibes…I’m cautious about this one. I mean, I’m sure Gaiman gave it his blessing and all that jazz, but this is Netflix. They’ll fuck something up. I just hope they don’t fuck it up…
Gaiman is pretty actively involved which… doesn’t necessarily speak to how good it will be as VF wrote:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/american-gods-cancelled-sandman
My take is this is the best chance it will have (I mean did you read the script that came VERY close to being made which turned Sandman into a sorta Freddie Krueger and was a sorta slasher movie in a hospital?)
Oh so they’re doing the Doctor Destiny diner horror show as well, huh? I can’t say that I’m looking forward to watching that (again, since it has been adapted as a fan movie once).
I mean you’re not really surprised that they wouldn’t adapt it, are you?
I don’t know what they’ll do with it here but I’ve always find that part of the Sandman saga to be one of the most disturbing story I have ever read so I’d be fine if they just cut it entirely from the show, but at the same time it is a good story and thoroughly established just how powerful and dangerous Dream’s power is when wielded by a psychopath, therefore quite integral to the overall arc to a point that not adapting it would give the series a disservice. Anyways, David Thewlis is perfectly casted as Doctor Destiny and I’m looking forward to what they’ll do with him on the show though I might still be skipping that one episode if they decided to adapt it.
I get that–I don’t think I’ve revisited it in the comics (despite having re-read most of it several times) and I never bothered with the highly regarded fan film of it. But it is one of the earliest (*the* earliest?) Sandman storylines or issues that still get talked about a lot. As the early ads for Sandman said (calling it outright a horror comic) it originally was being sold as a horror title (similar to Swamp Thing, which of course it used characters from), and this sequence probably lives up best to that.
That’s honestly the only part I’m dying to see. Though, I was more trusting when HBO was at the helm.
With Charles Dance because…of course he’s here.
So much perfect casting here.
Looking forward to this.
Another case of cautious optimism. I’m psyched to see it come to life, but terrified it will shit the bed. Not sure why, I enjoyed American Gods. Christie as Lucifer is super encouraging, but Lucifer is only in it so much. Death and Dreams need to be a knockout for it to work for my money.
Spoke too soon. Diversity hires bout to ruin it. Death needs to be well-cast and it isn’t. Don’t give a shit about race, but talent is a must and Howell-Baptiste does not have the chops.
But where is Thomas Haden Church?Jokes aside, this gets me going. Charles Dance is a fantastic way to start off a teaser, and this fills me with a lot more hope than the teasers we have of Cowboy Bebop, Wheel of Time, or season 2 of The Witcher.
Not feeling the set design. The weird camera lens certainly didn’t help, it looks… mushed? Like it’s distractingly distorted, whenever Charles Dance’s face is on screen it’s like the shot is slightly stretched vertically. It might be a stylistic choice, but to me it just looks like someone stretched the image to fit the frame.
I wonder who they’re going to get to play the Martian Manhunter?