The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” will be something other than the original comic book. While we discuss the incredibly popular graphic novel and audio adaptation on the DC FanDome panel with Dirk Maggs, G. Willow Wilson and Michael Sheen, Gaiman revealed the status of the highly anticipated upcoming Netflix adaptation announced in 2019.
When press was pressed for details on the long-awaited series, Gaiman first explained the obvious; due to the outbreak of the coronavirus everything has been on hiatus. However, the author revealed that he had used that time to get the script “near perfect as we can.” A task he teaches was rather fun.
“The moment the universal pause button starts to come on, we start casting again,” Gaiman said. “I get these inspiring and beautiful emails with production designs with places I once saw first in the comics, now reproduced in 3D, and I’m asked to comment. That’s unbelievable. “
The maker continued to compare the new Netflix series with the current adaptations. “Part of the fun of doing the audio adaptation was ‘this will be the closest thing we can do to an audiobook of those first three graphic novels and hopefully all graphic novels.’ And we’ll start it in 1988 and it’s going to end in about 1991 or 1992. ‘Sandman’ is a very compressed story, even if it takes place through time and space. ‘
“What we do with Netflix is say ‘OK It’s still going to start in 1916, but the thing that happens in’ Sandman ‘1, the point where the story begins is net 1988. It is now. And how does that change the story? What does that give us? What makes us have to see that we do not have to see when we set it as a period piece? What will that do to the gender of characters, what will that do to the nature of characters? What will that do to the story? And that has been an absolute pleasure. Because it means we are always true to the story and truly for the characters. But it gives us tremendous freedom to go, ‘OK if we do it now, what would’ Sandman ‘be? “And that’s quite liberating again.”
Check out the full schedule for Saturday’s DC FanDome Event here.
