The Sandman, Netflix's highly anticipated adaptation of the critically-acclaimed fantasy comic book series, will premiere August 5. – Photo: Netflix
The Sandman, Netflix's highly anticipated adaptation of the critically-acclaimed fantasy comic book series, will premiere August 5.
The news was announced out of a Netflix Geeked Week panel that featured the cast and producers of the series and was moderated by Felicia Day. In addition to the date announcement, the panel also unveiled a new teaser for the upcoming series.
The teaser shows the main character Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), or Dream, the king and personification of dreams and all that is not reality, as he is trapped and imprisoned by a group of sorcerers.
In the mythology of the show, Dream is one of the Endless, a group of seven beings that represent natural forces or aspects such as Death or Desire. The trailer follows Dream as he escapes from captivity and returns to his realm, only to find that it has fallen to disrepair in his years held captive.
"The dreams and nightmares no longer seem to recognize their master," Sturridge narrates in the trailer. "I will remind them."
The teaser also offers first looks at various cast members who portray characters from the original comics, including Gwendoline Christie as ruller of hell Lucifer, Vivienne Acheampong as Dreaming librarian Lucienne, Jenna Coleman as occult detective Johanna Constantine, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Dream's sister Death, and Boyd Holbrook as the living nightmare The Corinthian, one of the main villains of the original comic book series.
Other confirmed cast members from the series include Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Kyo Ra, Stephen Fry, Razane Jammal, Sandra James-Young and Patton Oswalt as the voice of Dream's raven Matthew.
The original Sandman comic book series was published by DC mature readers imprint Vertigo, and ran from 1989 to 1996 for a total of 75 issues. Written by Neil Gaiman with art by a rotating series of pencillers, the series was noted for blending a variety of literary, mythological and historical subject matter, and for its large cast of ensemble characters. "The Sandman" is generally considered one of the best comics of all time, winning over 20 Eisner awards and receiving several spin-offs and follow-up miniseries.
The Sandman was developed for TV by Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg, who all executive produce. The series is produced for Netflix by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
An adaptation of The Sandman has been in active development since 2013, when Goyer pitched a film adaptation to Warner Bros. The film was set to star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Morpheus, who left the project in 2016 due to creative differences. After years in development, Warner Bros. shifted the project to television, and signed a deal with Netflix to have them produce a series in 2019. – Reuters
