According to Neil Gaiman, Netflix is going to start production on its series adaptation of The Sandman in three weeks, which means we are going to get some casting news soon.
According to Collider, Tom Sturridge (Far from the Madding Crowd, Velvet Buzzsaw) is now in talks to join the project, and if everything works out and he’s cast, he will play the lead character, Dream. The site says that Sturridge tested for the title role earlier this year along with Tom York (Poldark) and Colin Morgan (Merlin).
Netflix gave the series an 11 episode order, and Doctor Who and Black Mirror director Toby Hayes was hired to helm some of them. Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, The Catch, Grey’s Anatomy) is writing the show, and he will also serve as showrunner.
The story focuses on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a deity who personifies dreams. Gaiman also introduced the Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium (as well as Dream).
The first season of the series is expected to adapt the first arc of the Vertigo comics series, “Preludes and Nocturnes,” which finds Morpheus captured by a black magician and held prisoner for the better part of a century. When he finally escapes, he sets about recovering three very important items.
In a previous interview, Gaiman confirmed that the storyline for the show will be set in 2021, and there will be some changes from the source material. He explained:
“We’re working with Netflix, we were meant to start shooting at the end of May. Given this COVID world, everything is on pause. The Netflix version is going to begin in 2021, so Morpheus will have been kept prisoner in the Netflix version for 105 years rather than 70 years. We’ll take that one, see what that does. It’s already in the scripts, it does interesting things because… if we were creating this character now, what gender would the character be?”
Gaiman is developing the show along with David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg. Do you think that Sturridge is a good choice for the role of Dream?