Check out Morpheus in this new image from Entertainment Weekly:

https://twitter.com/Sandman_Netflix/status/1524815235265470464

Before Sturridge was even cast as Morpheus, there had been a lot of discussions on who could take on the role, especially since the source material was so unique and there are several versions of Dream that exist within the comics.

Gaiman tells EW:

“I think I have personally seen 1,500 Morpheus auditions… I hesitate to imagine how many [casting director] Lucinda Syson and her team have seen… Having watched all those other auditions, we were able to go to Netflix and say, ‘it’s Tom,’… We know it’s Tom.”

We don’t know exactly how Sturridge will approach the role of dream, but he does say that he had to spend a lot of the shoot naked. He also says, “I cared very much about the physicality and image of Morpheus… We’ve all seen those pictures, we know about his skeletal, muscular, otherworldly physique.

Besides Dream, we should also expect a look at the other characters in the series including the rest of the Endless like Death, Desire, and Delirium/Delight. Other characters expected to appear in the series include Lucifer as well as a genderbent version of John Constantine—Johanna Constanine.

The Lord of Dreams has been summoned, and captured, by mortal men. Once free from his captivity, this eternal ruler of Dreams will realize that his troubles are only just beginning.

No release date has been revealed for Sandman yet, but with the new images released, we should wait for some kind of trailer or announcement from Netflix soon.

Check out Kirby Gowell-Baptiste’s Death and Mason Alexander Park’s Desire in the Sandman posters:

These Sandman character posters, holy CRAP. pic.twitter.com/kLDHhTCLeH

— Carly Lane-Perry (@carlylane) September 25, 2021

Though the Endless in the comics essentially look the same with their pale skin and dark hair, it looks like the series is going a different direction. Desire is still androgynous, but now they have blonde hair. Death is also black now, and she doesn’t seem to have her trademark face tattoo. If you read the comics though, the Endless frequently change form and even species; so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens on the show.

Admittedly, Netflix’s first look of Sandman was pretty tame, and if you’ve read the comic, you’ll know that the comic has visuals that are just as rich as the lore. Hopefully, we get a more visually dazzling trailer when the release date draws closer, whenever it is.

    A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic–and human–mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.

No release date has been set for The Sandman, but fans are hoping that the series could make its debut before the year ends.

(via Collider)

Take a look at TUDUM 2021:

Here’s the official description:

On September 25, Netflix’s biggest stars and creators from around the world will join the virtual stage for an exciting day full of exclusives and first-looks. It’s our first ever global TUDUM event, and our goal is simple: to entertain and honor Netflix fans from across the globe.

Over 70 films and series will be featured throughout the three-hour event – including some of our most popular returning seasons like Stranger Things, Bridgerton and The Witcher, La Casa De Papel and Cobra Kai, as well as blockbuster films like Red Notice, Don’t Look Up, Extraction, The Harder They Fall, The Old Guard and more.

Besides the titles in the description, we should also expect our first reveals for Netflix adaptations of Cowboy Bebop and Sandman. While Netflix has had a reputation for botching anime adaptations, that hasn’t really stopped them from trying time and again.

I wonder when we’re going to get our first look at the live-action One Piece?

With DC, Disney, and every other huge game brand hosting their own virtual events, it was only high time before Netflix decided they could just have their own showcase. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that they won’t be showcasing anything in the bigger cons in the future like the San Diego Comic-Con.

Catch TUDUM when it launches Sept. 25.

As per Gaiman on Twitter, he’s saying that his limited series Marvel 1602 could work as a Disney+ series. Check it out:

I'd love to see Marvel do 1602 as a tv series. https://t.co/6OtqIKpYwq

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 7, 2021

For context, Marvel 1602 is an alternate timeline story where the Marvel heroes exist in the 1600s. In 1602, mutants, or ‘the Witchbreed’ are being hunted down, and the heroes all have to band together to stop the destruction of the world.

The story features a lot of prominent Marvel characters with fun twists. Like Daredevil is a blind bard, and Nicholas Fury has Peter Parker (or Peter Parquagh) for an apprentice. We also get to meet the Victorian versions of Thor, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Doctor Doom.

With Marvel slowly introducing the multiverse with WandaVision and Loki, an adaptation of 1602 could be a great idea for Disney+. The audience is slowly being adjusted to the concept of multiple actors taking on the same character with Loki, and with 1602, it offers Marvel a real alternate timeline story that could give us all-new versions of characters. While we don’t have an established multiverse in the MCU yet, it’s possible 1602 could be adapted after we have the Fantasic Four and X-Men are introduced into the main MCU again.

For now, Gaiman is working on Sandman which will likely hit Netflix sometime next year. As for Marvel, their currently in the first season of Loki with new episodes coming out every Wednesday on Disney+.

As announced by Gaiman himself, a second season of Good Omens has been approved by Amazon Prime Video, and though we don’t have any images of the cast, we do have a new teaser poster featuring good friends Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant):

https://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/1409859193394376704

We don’t have a story for the second season yet, but with the fantasy that Good Omens draws from, it’s very possible that Gaiman and his team will have several places they could go.

With Good Omens set for a second season, this is just another on top of this current Gaiman-renaissance on TV, with his works like American Gods and Sandman getting adapted as well. There was word of an adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book over at Disney, but the project seems to have been put on hold.

Personally, I thought Good Omens was a very kid-friendly show, and it’s ultimate saving grace is the chemistry between Sheen and Tennant. We don’t know where the characters could go in the future, but the show would do well to have some more interesting faces besides the angel and devil.

About Good Omens:

The End of the World is coming, which means a fussy Angel and a loose-living Demon who’ve become overly fond of life on Earth are forced to form an unlikely alliance to stop Armageddon. But they have lost the Antichrist, an 11-year-old boy unaware he’s meant to bring upon the end of days, forcing them to embark on an adventure to find him and save the world before it’s too late.

No release date has been set for Good Omens 2, but you can catch the first season now available on Amazon Prime Video.

Check out the Sandman video down here: 

https://twitter.com/Nacao_DC/status/1408078921095122949?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1408078921095122949%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.comicbookmovie.com%2Famp%2Ftv%2Fdc%2Fthe_sandman%2Fthe-sandman-set-video-reveals-our-first-behind-the-scenes-look-at-tom-sturridge-as-morpheus-a185974

While it’s not necessarily his Dreamscape costume, Sturridge certainly looks the part of Morpheus just strolling around in the ‘real’ world, clad in black with his hair a slightly longer length. He doesn’t look ‘Morpheus’ pale, but it’s very possible that they could fix that in post; or maybe they just want to give him a little more color whenever he’s disguised as a human.

With the Sandman comics being as fantastical as they are, there is going to be a lot of pressure for Netflix to deliver a Sandman adaptation that fans can get behind. Either way, if the series is able to get more casual fans to pick-up Gaiman’s original comic, then the show would have done its job. Let’s just hope that Gaiman and the rest of the team are up to the task when it comes to this adaptation.

Here’s the official description for the show:

“A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.”

No release date has been set for Netflix’s Sandman.

Here’s the official Sandman casting announcement:

Jenna Coleman, David Thewlis, Stephen Fry, Patton Oswalt, Joely Richardson, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Niamh Walsh, Kyo Ra, Razane Jammal, and Sandra James Young will co-star alongside Tom Sturridge and Gwendolyn Christie in The Sandman! pic.twitter.com/tlQ97I0xyS

— Netflix (@netflix) May 26, 2021

Here are the official character descriptions for Sandman (as per Variety):

KIRBY HOWELL-BAPTISTE (she/her) is DEATH, Dream’s wiser sister.

MASON ALEXANDER PARK (they/them) is DESIRE, Dream’s sibling, and desire personified.

DONNA PRESTON (she/her) is DESPAIR, Dream’s sister, and the twin of Desire.

JENNA COLEMAN (she/her) is JOHANNA CONSTANTINE, haunted exorcist and Occult Adventuress for Hire.

NIAMH WALSH (she/her) is YOUNG ETHEL CRIPPS, a betrayed and determined young woman seeking to survive.

JOELY RICHARDSON (she/her) is ETHEL CRIPPS, Master thief and woman of a thousand identities.

DAVID THEWLIS (he/him) is JOHN DEE, Ethel’s son. Dangerous, insane and on a quest for truth.

KYO RA (she/her) is ROSE WALKER, A young woman on a desperate search for her missing brother. She discovers a connection to Dream that neither of them can escape.

STEPHEN FRY (he/him) is GILBERT, Debonair protector of Rose Walker.

RAZANE JAMMAL (she/her) is LYTA HALL, Rose’s best friend and travel companion.

SANDRA JAMES YOUNG (she/her) is UNITY KINCAID, Heiress and mysterious benefactor.

PATTON OSWALT (he/him) to voice MATTHEW THE RAVEN, Dream’s trusted emissary. A Raven.

This diverse cast of actors will be joining a list of other performers which include the likes of Charles Dance, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, and Asim Chaudhry. No doubt, some of these characters will only be appearing a few out of the 10 episodes that the show has been greenlit for. If the comic is any indication, Sandman is an anthology series in nature, so it’s possible we could have small pockets of stories just with recurring characters.

If anything, Sandman has also pulled a Deadpool 2, and has cast a black woman in the role of Death (who is usually depicted as a lady with ghost-white skin). To that Gaiman had this to say:

Hush. Stop worrying. It's all good. The important thing about Death is that she's Death: helpful, sensible, forgiving, wonderful. She's white and black and human and bird and alien. Read Sandman again…

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) May 26, 2021

There is also some griping about the role of Constantine being given to Jenna Coleman, but this isn’t a genderbent version of John Constantine, but rather an in-canon character Johanna Constantine who was an ancestor of the original Hellblazer. We don’t know her role in the Sandman series, but they could either make her some kind of immortal or have her story take place during the American frontier.  Either way, it would be great if the series could introduce a new version of John Constantine, but that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

For now, no release date has been set for Sandman, but it’s possible it could arrive on Netflix sometime in 2022.