Yahoo Movies Netflix unveils its Sandman adaptation cast: Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, and more
Are you ready to enter the Dreaming? Netflix is, and on Thursday morning the streaming service finally unveiled the cast of its upcoming live-action adaptation of beloved comic The Sandman.
Originally created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg, The Sandman is about Dream, the anthropomorphic embodiment of storytelling, and what he decides to do with his immortal life after escaping a decades-long captivity at the hands of human sorcerers and returning to his realm in The Dreaming. Netflix has announced that Tony-nominated actor Tom Sturridge (Orphans, Sea Wall/A Life) will play Dream (also called Morpheus in the comics) in the new series.
The Sandman is far from a solo story, though; a major reason the comic is so beloved is its colorful cast of supporting characters, and some of those roles have been cast as well. Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) will play Lucifer, the ruler of Hell whom Dream must visit shortly after his escape, while Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) will play Lucienne, chief librarian of The Dreaming and Dream's most trusted lieutenant. Interestingly, these casting choices represent gender flips from the comic, where both characters are depicted as male.
Christie isn't even the only Game of Thrones veteran on board for The Sandman. Charles Dance will play Roderick Burgess, human magician and leader of the cult that captures Dream. Rounding out the initial cast, Boyd Holbrook (Logan) will play the Corinthian, a living nightmare whose eyes are made of teeth, while Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry will play Cain and Abel. Millennia after becoming the first murderer and the first victim, Cain and Abel now live as storytellers in neighboring houses in The Dreaming, though their sibling rivalry still manifests in the form of deadly violence (if you've seen Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, then you get their dynamic).
At least one big name is missing from this list: Death, Dream's sister and goth girl icon for the ages. It's hard to imagine any version of The Sandman that doesn't include her, so it's probably safe to assume these will not be the last castings announced before the show premieres. But now fans have some faces to match to names ahead of the long-awaited debut of a comic adaptation that, not unlike Dream returning to power after decades in captivity, is finally coming into the light after years in development hell.
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