David S. Goyer has explained how the upcoming series adaptation of The Sandman cast the show's Morpheus/Dream.

"Casting Morpheus was absolutely the hardest part of making the show. I don’t even know how many people auditioned. Could have been over 700," said Goyer in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. "Morpheus is not a superhero, but if you look to the casting of Superman, it’s helpful that you don’t cast an actor with too much baggage; you don’t want someone who’s bigger than the story." The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman added that they were looking to cast "somebody who could be vulnerable while never being human." Tom Sturridge, one of the first actors who auditioned for the role, signed on to play Morpheus in September 2020.

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The announced cast for The Sandman has been mostly composed of lesser-known actors who have not appeared significantly in a major franchise before joining the Netflix series. There are however a few exceptions, most notably Harry Potter's David Thewlis and Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie being cast as John Dee and Lucifer Morningstar, respectively, in the series. Patton Oswalt and Mark Hamill are also slated to appear in The Sandman, though fans will only get to hear their voices. Oswalt will voice Matthew the Raven while Hamill lends his vocal talents to Mervyn Pumpkinhead.

Casting The Sandman's Endless

Gaimon has previously spoken about The Sandman's color-blind casting process and the backlash some castings received, particularly Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death. "The thing that got me grumpiest was when people on Twitter would go, 'This is not the gamine-esque, white, gothy Death that I’ve had in my head for all these years, why are you betraying us?'" he said in June 2022. "It's the Endless – we did color-blind casting, because why wouldn’t you? The comics establish that the characters look like whatever we want them to look like. Anyway, Kirby’s amazing. And I think that people who have been grumbling that she doesn’t look like Death are going to not be grumbling [anymore] once they see her be Death."

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The Sandman is a live-action adaptation of Gaiman's popular fantasy horror comic series of the same name, which was first published in 1989 by Vertigo. The series gathered critical acclaim and a devoted fan base over its original 75-issue run. The upcoming adaptation will follow the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he tries to fix all the cosmic and human mistakes he’s made during his vast existence. The first season premieres on Netflix on August 15 and will consist of 10 episodes, covering the events of the comic's first story arc Preludes & Nocturnes.

Source: Empire