Netflix has announced that its upcoming series, The Sandman, based on the Neil Gaiman comics of the same name, will be released on August 5, 2022. The date announcement comes in the form of a new trailer that features series cast members Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, and Jenna Coleman, among others.
The Sandman comic books, written by Good Omens author Neil Gaiman in 1989, ran for 75 issues between 1989 and 1996. The comic books follow the protagonist Dream (also known as The Sandman and Morpheus), the personification of dreams and ruler of a realm known as the Dreaming. Dream is one of the seven Endless, all-powerful, godlike beings that represent natural forces, with the other Endless including Death, Despair, Desire, Destiny, Delirium, and Destruction. The Sandman sees Dream captured by an occult ritual and trapped for seventy years before being released back into a modern world where everything he knew has changed – and along with that, his realm of the Dreaming has forgotten him and fallen into disrepair.
“The dreams and nightmares no longer seem to recognize their master…I will remind them,” Dream (Tom Sturridge) quotes in the newest trailer for The Sandman, released on Twitter.
How ‘The Sandman’ made it to Netflix
According to Variety, an on-screen adaptation of The Sandman has been in the works since 2013, when a film adaptation was pitched to Warner Bros Studios. The original concept set Supernatural creator Eric Kripke as showrunner and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Dream, but both roles were scrapped and recast as The Sandman moved from a film adaptation to its current state as a TV series.
Gordon-Levitt was replaced by Tom Sturridge (On the Road), who stars in the new trailer as Dream, along with Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) as Lucifer, the ruler of hell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, and Jenna Coleman (Victoria) as Johanna Constantine, an occult detective distantly related to John Constantine; according to IGN, “she has [his] same knack for getting into magical mischief.” Boyd Holbrook, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Razane Jammal, and Patton Oswalt have also been confirmed to star in the new series, among others.
The newest trailer for The Sandman is available below.
The Sandman Netflix series will be executive produced by Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and Allan Heinberg. The series will be released on August 5, 2022.