The Boys Creator Says His Sandman Adaptation "Would've Been a Bad Show"

By Adam Barnhardt

Long before Netflix landed the rights to The Sandman, Eric Kripke had a shot at developing the series. At the same time David Goyer was working on a film adaptation, the showrunner behind Prime Video's The Boys was working on a take for Warner Brothers Television. As Kripke recalled on Twitter over the weekend, his version wouldn't have been all too great considering the budgetary limitations of such a show.

"WB gave me a crack at The Sandman but said it had to be network," the writer said. "It was my fave comic, inspired much of [Supernatural], so I tried. Neil was kind and patient but ultimately it would've been a bad show. I'm glad he held out. Sandman on Netflix is lush, stunning. GO WATCH!"

Comic creator Neil Gaiman originally caused the discussion by explaining why the series hadn't gone forward until Netflix hopped on board.

"It was a terrific network TV version of Sandman," the legendary scribe said. "But when you make a network TV version of Sandman you lose an awful lot of what makes it Sandman. [Eric Kripke] did a great job considering the limitations."

The Sandman debuted on the streamer to critical acclaim earlier this month and Gaiman says the production is "on track" for a second season.

"Basically, the way that it works is making something like Sandman is incredibly expensive," Gaiman explained in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. "This is not a cheap show. This is the opposite of a cheap show. This is dead expensive. And that means that in order to be renewed, we have to perform as well as everybody could possibly, possibly hope. So everybody is very hopeful. It's all looking great. We're certainly on track for it. But it's all about how we do over the month after release."

"Well, you get breadcrumbs, and much more importantly, most of the breadcrumbs that they give you are things that you can check publicly," Gaiman continued. "I think last week, human beings on the face of this planet spent 127 million hours watching Sandman. That is an awful lot of Sandman. And the next-most-watched thing was watched for 65 million hours or whatever. So we're doing well. We're really doing great."

The first three seasons of The Boys are now streaming on Prime Video while The Sandman can be seen on Netflix.

What other indie comic adaptations would you like to see? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @ADamBarnhardt up on Twitter!

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