The adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is probably one of the most successful source material-to-live action adaptations that we’ve ever seen. The Sandman received high praise from critics and fans alike for its casting, production, staying in line with the source material, and the brilliant performance of Tom Sturridge as Dream.
However, it wasn’t only Sturridge’s performance that caught the eyes of the audience. Jenna Coleman, who plays the gender-swapped version of John Constantine named Johanna Constantine, has also been at the receiving end of applause and it looks like Gaiman’s taken an extra amount of interest in her character.
Neil Gaiman Interested In A Johanna Constantine Spin-Off
The Sandman is one of Netflix’s big-shot TV shows for this year, having earned the number one spot globally on Netflix’s top 10 titles, and it had 69.5 million hours viewed on it! It would only make sense for WB and DC Entertainment to indulge in talks about a spin-off series related to the show.
While it is very much true that Lady Johanna exists in the comics for The Sandman, Jenna Coleman’s (who plays both) character is not to be mistaken for Johanna Constantine, who is related by ancestry to the former.
Johanna Constantine is only there to exist as a replacement for the character John Constantine as the latter is slated for an upcoming appearance in the ensemble drama Justice League Dark, which will also feature several other iconic characters.
Jenna Coleman recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about her role in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Interestingly, they got to a point where Coleman revealed that an upcoming spin-off series based on Johanna Constantine received consideration and support from Gaiman himself!
The 36-year-old actress describes her time playing the character, and further reveals-
“One of the reasons that I wanted to [play Constantine] was that the character felt so formed, and what was really thoughtful of Neil and Allan [Heinberg] is that they sent the script over to me, but they didn’t tell me who the character was. So I didn’t know it was Constantine when I read it.”
“So I formed my own thoughts about who this person was without having any preconceptions of Constantine before, which was really smart. But yeah, Neil filled me in [about calls for a spin-off]. He and Allan are really behind it. They seem to think it would be a good idea.”
There you have it, Gaiman seems to be all in on the idea, but it’s gonna need a very good pitch for WB to budge and splash out a new budget for Johanna’s spin-off TV series/movie.
Is The Sandman Woke? Here’s What Neil Gaiman Has To Say
The Sandman is one of Neil Gaiman‘s best works which he can comfortably take pride in, and the TV series adaptation only adds to the legacy that the comic wants to leave behind.
However, The Sandman isn’t really without its criticism, and one of the most notable negatives that fans have pointed out about the TV series is that it’s too “woke”. It is important to note that most of the feedback toward the show being “woke” comes after the decision to cast black actors for roles of characters that were originally white in the comics.
So what would Neil Gaiman have to say about that? During an interview with Times Radio, The 61-year-old English author put forward his opinion on all the criticism the show has been receiving for being too “woke”-
“When people are accusing me of being quote-unquote ‘woke’ for Sandman stuff that I wrote 35 years ago, I– it’s like, ‘Well, yes.”
“I remember when instead of calling it ‘woke,’ they called it ‘politically correct.’ And then you talk about ‘political correctness gone mad.’ And I remember once reading a book where they started talking about political correctness and the fact that you could no longer make jokes about people’s ethnicity or religion in the same way. And I thought, well, actually, that’s just– that’s not ‘political correctness.’ That’s just ‘treating other people with respect.'”
It’s always one of the oldest cases of a rabbit hole whenever it comes to salty fans (and racists) being too concerned about a person of color playing a white character, and Gaiman has nothing to prove to them.
The Sandman is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Screen Rant
