Since 1989, Neil Gaiman’s game-changing comic The Sandman has bewitched readers with its brainy and surreal take on the otherworldly. But it’s also long resisted film and TV adaptations.(A new Audible audiobook, though, came off without a hitch.) Attempts have been made by the likes of Terry Gilliam, Roger Avary, David S. Goyer, and James Mangold, but they all came to naught. But a new version, from Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg, finally did it, and now we have the proof in a first look trailer.
The promo sticks closely to Gaiman’s first issue, which introduces us to Morpheus, aka Dream — the Goth icon who’s one of seven semi-immortal beings known as the “Endless” — in the early 20th century, when he’s summoned and entrapped by a magician (played here by Charles Dance). The trailer ends with our first glimpse of Tom Sturridge as one of the comics world’s most fascinating and magnetic characters, promising that his jailer will pay.
There are 75 issues, plus a number of spin-offs and revisits, the Netflix show can tackle. Some show Morpehus’ dalliances in the past, with him hobnobbing with everyone from William Shakespeare to Orpheus, going to hell or to ancient Baghdad. But the show can always start off simple before going big. There is no release date for the Sandman show yet, but it just wrapped filming in August, so you may have a be a touch patient.
You can watch the trailer above.