Neil Gaiman has confirmed that the Netflix series adaptation of his acclaimed comic series “The Sandman” will be making one key change from the original comic – the time period.
The recent audiobook adaptation of the work, starring James McAvoy, was very faithful to it including the original’s setting which begins in 1988 and runs through until around 1991-1992. As Gaiman says, ‘Sandman’ is a “very compressed story even though it takes place all through time and space.”
With the Netflix adaptation however, the setting will be shifted to more contemporary times. Speaking at the DC Fandome event over the weekend, Gaiman explained how that simple shift has a big impact:
“What we’re doing with Netflix is saying ‘OK It’s still going to start in 1916, but the thing that happens in ‘Sandman’ 1, the point that the story starts is not 1988. It’s now.
How does that change the story? What does that give us? What does that make us have to look at that we wouldn’t have to look at if we were setting it as a period piece? What is that going to do to the gender of characters, what is that going to do to the nature of characters? What’s that going to do to the story?
And that has been an absolute delight. Because it means we are always being true to the story and being true to the characters. But it gives us tremendous freedom to go, ‘OK if we were doing it now what would ‘Sandman’ be?’ And that, again, is very liberating.”
Gaiman says the series production has been on pause due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, but they have been using the time to get the script as “close to perfect as we can.” Now the universal pause button is coming off, casting on the series is beginning again.
Source: DC Fandome
