Neil Gaiman, creator of ‘Sandman’, is in talks to bring the series to Netflix after a long road

sandman It finally hits the screen and Neil Gaiman can’t wait for the moment.

Gaiman joined the cast of the Netflix series, including Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Coleman and Kirby Howell-Baptiste, for a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. The team debuted some clips and the full trailer below.

The event was the culmination of the comic book, which was first published in 1989 before going through a long adaptation process, finally coming to Netflix in the summer of 2019 to see what we did,” Gaiman told the crowd. “Feels so good.”

Showrunner Alan Heinberg said his plan was to “stay as faithful to the book as possible,” adding, “Netflix has been incredibly supportive of that mission.”

The story revolves around a dreamer who is released from prison and seeks to bring stability to his world. The show’s staff recalled the lengthy casting process, which included casting Sturridge in the lead role.

Gaiman recalled that Sturridge got his dream audition early on, but the team saw many other actors after that. “By the end of the process, we’ll see about 1,000 auditions,” Gaiman said. “And it was Tom again.”

Sturridge praised the show for portraying a completely different world in each episode, remembering to be a fan of the source material. “I cared a lot about this literature,” he said. “I read it several times for months until it was in my bones and blood.”

He continued, “The key to our story is that the dream takes a journey and becomes who it isn’t in the first place.”

For the role of Lucifer, Gaiman recalled that the character’s original concept was inspired by a David Bowie-like figure that Gaiman saw as a “rejected angel”. He joked about Christie, who plays Lucifer, “Gwendolyn gets a shovel from an evil angel.”

For her part, Christie continued to praise, “I’m a one-stop shop for drug angels.” He continued: “I was so happy when Alan and Neil came to me. sandman.”

The actor also said he loved playing such an unpleasant role. “The idea of ​​being the essence of evil in these people’s eyes was the most satisfying moment I wanted,” he said.

The series’ two voice actors are Patton Oswalt as Matthew Corran and Mark Hamill as Mervyn Pumpkinhead. Oswalt, a lifelong comic book fan, said his character provides comic relief and that it was a unique challenge to play a character not seen in the original books.

“I’m playing a character that is completely new to this world,” Oswalt said. “He’s racing to catch up to this vast world he’s been thrown into.”

Howell-Baptiste, who plays Dream’s sister Death, said she spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of ​​bringing Death to life. “How do you give the conception of the human form, death?” I ask. The actor said he spent time figuring out how to make his character feel comfortable.

“I had a personal loss that I think I was able to pretend I was dead,” he added.

For Gaiman, he said he was able to stay focused on bringing the show to the screen because others continued to respect the material: “Nobody wanted to change what I did.”