The Sandman: Netflix Series Reportedly Wants Tom Sturridge as Dream

Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman — which will soon begin filming — is reportedly looking towards Tom Sturridge to lead the series as Dream. That’s according to Collider, which reports having learned Sturridge tested for the role earlier this year and emerged as the favorite over Tom York and Colin Morgan. Sturridge’s credits include starring opposite Carey Mulligan in Far from the Maddening Crowd and starring the Starz series Sweetbitter. He played Lord Byron in the Mary Shelley movie and appeared in the Netflix film Velvet Buzzsaw. He also had roles in Song to Song, Pirate Radio, and the film adaptation of On the Road.

According to David S. Goyer, The Sandman would have started filming already if not for the coronavirus pandemic. He said during San Diego Comic-Con, “The two things that were occupying most of my time prior to lockdown are these big-budget streaming adaptations of both Sandman and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation,” Goyer said. “Foundation was a little further along. We filmed about 40% of the first season when we were forced to shut down, and Sandman was supposed to start shooting in May. I believe we were in the early scripting stage.”

Rumors suggest British director Toby Haynes will helm episodes of The Sandman. It is unclear if Haynes’ new job directing Disney+’s Rogue One prequel will interfere with those plans.

Before coming to live-action, The Sandman saw its first adaptation as an audiobook exclusive to Audible. Gaiman says that where the audio adaptation is unwaveringly faithful to the original comics, the Netflix adaptation will modernize the original story.

“Doing the Netflix TV series, we’re very much looking at that as going, ‘Okay, it is 2020, let’s say that I was doing Sandman starting in 2020, what would we do? How would we change things? What gender would this character be? Who would this person be? What would be happening?’” Gaiman said.

He continued, “For Netflix right now, people have tried making some movies and TV adaptations for 30 years, and actively tried making them for 25 years, and they’ve never worked. And they never worked because of all the special effects and what would be needed to do the special effects. They never worked because you were making something that was adult. People would write Sandman movie scripts, and they go, ‘But it’s an R-rated movie, and we can’t have $100 million R-rated movies.’ So, that wouldn’t happen. You needed to get to a world in which long-form storytelling is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. And the fact that we have seventy-five issues of Sandman plus — essentially, 13 full books — worth of material, is a really good thing. It’s not a drawback. It’s on our side. And the fact that we’re in a world in which we can take things that only existed in comic book art, and that can now exist in reality.”