A lot happened in last day’s DC FanDome event. Wonder Woman 1984, The Batman, Black Adam, The Suicide Squad, Zack Snyder’s Justice League – there were trailers and teasers dropping like cats and dogs during the monsoon. DC left no stone unturned while they flawlessly executed the online virtual convention and set the benchmark for how future comic book events shall be conducted in a Post-COVID 19 world. We finally know that the DC Extended Universe is at least moving in the right direction. Within all the hullabaloo, a very important piece of information escaped DC fans. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series coming under the Netflix banner was also part of the show. It’s just that with all the epic commotion, we kind of missed one of the most epic pieces of news for superhero fans.
Rest assured, FandomWire has got you covered. We will be explaining in detail everything that was revealed during the DC FanDome event with respect to the upcoming Sandman series.
How Long It’s Been In Development
The last time we heard that the series was being considered to be put in the pipeline was at least over a year ago. It was when Netflix revealed their plans to turn the acclaimed Neil Gaiman Sandman comic book arc into an 11 Episode Series. News about the adaptation became scarcer as the coronavirus pandemic hit the globe and pre-production on the entire project halted abruptly.
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Change in the Original Story Arc
But that is not necessarily a bad thing for the show. It is all about perspective. At least as far as Sandman is concerned, they used the delay as added time for them to pause and reflect on their direction, considering a change of pace and a fresher take on the storyline if possible. In the end, The Sandman series only stood to benefit from the delay as claimed by Neil Gaiman during the Enter the Dreaming Panel.
“Due to COVID, everything, as with every other piece of television being made around the world has hit the pause button… we’ve taken advantage of our pause button to get the scripts as close to perfect as we possibly could which has been really fun.”
It Will Be Set in Present Day
The Netflix Adaptation, like we said, will have a little change in the plot. The original story will have to be obviously tweaked for a series to maintain the element of surprise and unpredictability. Dirks Marks, G Willow Wilson, and Michael Sheen were the panel members for the event along with Neil Gaiman. Gaiman, who was kept pressed to reveal more details about the highly anticipated show claimed that the Coronavirus pandemic led to all developments on the series being paused. He did say that he used the time to get the script “as close to perfect as we can”. Rest assured, he admits the task was fun and rather entertaining.
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When pressed about the Netflix Series, Gaiman continued to play coy. But he did reveal some vital details that give us a very accurate idea on the time frame the show will be set in.
“What we’re doing with Netflix is saying ‘OK It’s still going to start in 1916, but the thing that happens in ‘Sandman’ 1, the point that the story starts is not 1988. It’s now. And how does that change the story? What does that give us? What does that make us have to look at that we wouldn’t have to look at if we were setting it as a period piece? What is that going to do to the gender of characters, what is that going to do to the nature of characters? What’s that going to do to the story? And that has been an absolute delight. Because it means we are always being true to the story and being true to the characters. But it gives us tremendous freedom to go, ‘OK if we were doing it now what would ‘Sandman’ be?’ And that, again, is very liberating.”
How Different The Netflix Adaptation Will Be
Things are pretty much airtight right now. At the moment, Neil Gaiman’s hands (and mouth) are tied because multiple major players are involved. Netflix, Audible (that is having a Sandman Audio Adaptation), and DC as well as Warner Brothers are involved. More and more details will be revealed as time progresses. But from the looks of it, the Sandman series is shaping up to be a very entertaining ordeal.
Gaiman had this to say:
“Something that I will say: part of the joy of doing the audio adaptation was going ‘This is going to be the nearest thing we can do to an audio book of the first three graphic novels’… What we’re doing with Netflix is saying ‘Okay, it’s still going to start in 1916 but the thing that happens in Sandman #1 the point where it starts is not 1888, it’s now.”
Possibility of Changes to Core Characters
The Netflix Adaptation has a tweaked script. It will have a more modern setting and will have a feel that the comic book source as well as the audio book series will not exhibit. There might be some major changes in some of the genders; of the core characters list. Gaiman was pretty excited about the level of freedom the live action series granted him and he looked more than happy to help.
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Release Date
As of now, Netflix’s Sandman has no official release date. The work is still on-going for the show. There has not even been so much as even news on the actors that have been roped in for the series. Luckily, Gaiman was sure that work will presume very soon on the Sandman show. Gaiman is already working along with Heinberg and Goyer on a possible story line for the sequel series. Considering the fact that the first season has not even entered production yet and the original comic book story line is more than 30 years old, Netflix has tremendous confidence on DC’s Sandman.
