Celebrated author Neil Gaiman is seeing two adaptations of his classic graphic novel series “The Sandman” coming to life.
One is a just recently launched critically acclaimed Audible series with a massive cast of voice talent and is said to be incredibly loyal to the original source material. The other is a live-action Netflix series adaptation which is still in relatively early stages.
Speaking with Collider this week, Gaiman reveals that the response to the audio series also allowed him to test what changes can and should be made to the narrative for the upcoming Netflix series:
“In a scientific experiment, this [the Audible series] would be the control [group]. It’s like, ‘Okay, here’s the one where we’re not going to change anything. We’re going to adapt it, but we’re going to keep it the same.’
This allows Allan Heinberg and David Goyer and I to have conversations where I can actually say, ‘Ah, okay, now if you want to do that, we’ve done that in the Audible version, and this is how it works. But I think maybe we could actually take it over here or maybe we could do this.’
And it’s very liberating actually, having one that is the pure control that means that we know where the doors are open for Netflix and where we can go, ‘Okay, well, this character is male in the original, is there any particular reason why this character has to be male? Oh, there was no point at which this character desperately needs to use their penis to stir tea or something. Let’s change that and see.’ And you just get to start playing and then that takes you to really interesting places too.”
Gaiman remains adamant though that die-hard fans of Morpheus’ story will not be disappointed and it will still tell his story even as it will offer the odd surprise:
“I think that if you are somebody who loves the original comics, you will love the Netflix series. And I think if you are somebody who knows the original comics, well, you will have an absolute advantage plot-wise in the Netflix series. But much like something like Game of Thrones, while you will have an advantage, you will not always be one step ahead. You will have an advantage, but there may well be places where we go and do something that you are really not expecting or where we go and go, “Okay, well, that was how we did it. We’ve already done that. What would happen if we did this instead?”
No cast for the Netflix series has been set. The Audible series boasts a cast list that includes James McAvoy, Michael Sheen, Riz Ahmed, Justin Vivian Bond, Arthur Darvill, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, William Hope, Josie Lawrence, Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, and Andy Serkis.
