The highly-anticipated Netflix TV series, “Sandman,” is currently in production. And thus, we are finally learning more about the cast that will help bring Neil Gaiman’s critically-acclaimed comic book series to life on the streaming platform. Sure, we already had one batch of actors announced months ago, but this is a huge ensemble, and there were still massive roles that needed to be cast.
Today, Netflix has announced the remaining cast of “Sandman,” thanks to a blog post by Neil Gaiman. According to the streamer, Patton Oswalt, Jenna Coleman, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Niamh Walsh, David Thewlis, Kyo Ra, Razane Jammal, Sandra James Young, and Stephen Fry have all joined the huge cast for the upcoming fantasy series.
“Sandman” tells the story of Morpheus, aka Dream, one of the metaphysical characters that make up The Endless, as he has to go to the mortal realm to mend the mistakes he has made. But this casting announcement has little to do with the lead character, already announced as being played by Tom Sturridge, and more to do with some big supporting characters.
Perhaps the most surprising role that was announced today is that of Jenna Coleman, who is playing Johanna Constantine, a name that should excite fans of DC Comics. As described, this female Constantine is an “Eighteenth-Century occult adventuress” and John Constantine’s great-great-great-grandmother. So, while they haven’t brought John Constantine (famously played by Keanu Reeves in a 2005 film, “Constantine,” and then by Matt Ryan in a subsequent network TV series) to the “Sandman” universe, it does give us an explicit link between the Netflix series and the greater DC Comics universe.
Speaking about the character of Johanna Constantine, Gaiman said, “This Sandman character became so popular that she even had her own spin-off series. I created her to fill the role that John Constantine does in the past. When we broke down the first season, given that we knew that we would be encountering Johanna in the past, we wondered what would happen if we met a version of her in the present as well. We tried it and the script was sparkier, feistier, and in some ways even more fun. So having written her, we just had to cast her. Jenna Coleman (she/her) gave us the Johanna of our dreams – tough, brilliant, tricky, haunted and probably doomed.
For comic book fans that love “Sandman,” the announcement of Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death is also huge. Described as “Dream’s wiser, nicer, and much more sensible sister,” Death is a character that quickly became a fan-favorite and spun off into her own stories. So, you have to imagine that fans will anxiously see how Howell-Baptiste is in the role and if her future is going to be significantly larger moving forward.
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These actors join a cast that already includes Sturridge as Dream of the Endless, Gwendolyn Christie as Lucifer, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Amid Chaudry as Cain and Abel, respectively, Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, and Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian.
A release date for “Sandman” has yet to be announced, but production is ongoing now, which is pointing to a late-2021 or early-2022 date.
Here’s the synopsis for the series:
A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.