Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who was last seen in Cruella, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald actor Donna Preston, and Harry Potter actor David Thewlis joined the cast of Sandman, the television adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s graphic novel series by the same name, Netflix announced on Thursday.
While Baptiste, Preston, and Thewlis will be seen playing the DC Comic characters of Death, Despair, and John Dee, the cast includes Mason Alexander Park as Desire, Dream’s sibling, Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall, Joely Richardson as Ethel Cripps, or John Dee’s mother, while Niamh Walsh will play the younger Cripps. Kyo Ra will be seen as Rose Walker, who searches for her missing brother and establishes “a connection to Dream that neither of them can escape”.
Jenna Coleman will play Johanna Constantine. Patton Oswalt will be lending his voice to a raven, Matthew, Dream’s “trusted emissary”. Stephen Fry will play Rose Walker’s protector Gilbert, and Sandra James Young will play Unity Kinkaid, the Heiress who spent a century asleep, according to a statement from Netflix.
In 1991, Gaiman’s Sandman that was originally published as a monthly comic, became the first ever comic book series to receive a literary award- the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. The dark fantasy revolves around the character named ‘King of Dream’ or ‘Morpheus’ and his siblings Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and Destruction.
In January, Netflix announced the first set of cast members of the fantasy series with Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance, renowned from their respective roles of Brienne of Tarth and Tywin Lannister from HBO’s Game of Thrones, along with Tom Sturridge, Vivienne Acheampong, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Asim Chaudhry, and Narcos actor Boyd Holbrook.
While Sturridge will be playing the role of the King of Dream or Morpheus in Netflix’s adaptation, Christie and Acheampong will be seen as Lucifer or the Ruler of Hell and Lucienne, the librarian at Dreams’ realm, respectively, however, with a gender flip as, Lucifer and Lucienne are both male characters, in the comic series.
Casting Lucifer was a delight. I'm so very glad that @lovegwendoline is the Ruler of Hell in Sandman on @netflix. pic.twitter.com/YnxXUy9S5T
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 28, 2021
“Casting Lucifer was a delight,” Gaiman tweeted while officially announcing the cast.
Dance will be seen as Roderick Burgess, “the Charalatan and Magician” while Bhaskar and Chaudhry will be seen as The First Predator Cain and The First Victim Abel, respectively. Holbrook will be seen as The Corinthian, ‘an escaped nightmare’.
The adaptation, first announced by Netflix in July 2019, will have Allan Heinberg of Wonder Woman as the showrunner. Gaiman along with Heinberg and David S Goyer will be writing the television series with the former two also stepping into the shoes of executive producers.
