On the comics page, Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman often drastically shifted style and tone. Stories within stories within dreams were his thing long before Inception. And characters could veer from terrifying to ridiculous. Speaking with Empire, Gaiman indicated that when the TV adaptation arrives on Netflix, the Sandman episodes may frequently feel vastly different from one another.
“You watch Episode 1 and think, ‘Oh, I get this thing: it’s like Downton Abbey, but with magic,’” he says. “Then you’ll be wondering, ‘What the hell is this?’ by Episode 2, when you’re meeting Gregory the Gargoyle in The Dreaming. Episode 5 is about as dark and traumatic as anything is ever gonna get, then you’ve got Episode 6, which is probably the most feel-good of all the episodes.” Unlike many other genre shows, he adds, whether a viewer does or doesn’t like one episode may not indicate how they’ll feel about the next one.
RELATED: Neil Gaiman Has Contributed to Every Script for Netflix’s Sandman
In revealing another image from the show, Empire confirms a key change that may take some fans a moment to get used to. Dream (Tom Sturridge) looks to have regular human skin color, as opposed to being all white. (Assuming the image is accurate and final.) The decision likely makes him easier to light and film, and saves time and money. But it means his otherworldliness will have to come through entirely in the performance rather than appearance.
Sandman arrives on Netflix at an unspecified date later this year.
What do you make of Gaiman’s description? Or of Sandman’s flesh tones? Let us know in comments.
Recommended Reading: Lucifer Omnibus Vol. 1 (The Sandman Universe Classics)
