The Sandman: Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie to lead Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman series

Comic book series has previously been called ‘unfilmable’

Netflix has announced the cast of its TV series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

Based on Gaiman’s DC comic book series of the same name, The Sandman has been in the works for many years in different forms and has previously been called “unfilmable”.

Netflix signed on to produce the fantasy adaptation in July 2019, but production has been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic. However, on Thursday (28 January), Netflix revealed that the ball was truly rolling as they announced a number of key members of the show’s cast.

After months of speculation, it was confirmed that Tom Sturridge will lead the drama as Dream, the Lord of the Dreaming and the Sandman himself.

Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie, meanwhile, will star as Lucifer, the ruler of hell. In Gaiman’s comics, Lucifer is given a genderless form.

Christie will be reunited in The Sandman with her former GoT co-star Charles Dance, who plays Roderick Burgess.

Vivienne Acheampong will portray Lucienne, while Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry play Cain and Abel respectively. Boyd Holbrook rounds out the cast as The Corinthian.

Gaiman will serve as an executive producer and writer on the show, commenting: “For the last thirty-three years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head. I’m unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality.

“I can’t wait until the people out there get to see what we've been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there.”