Neil Gaiman's legendary comic series The Sandman has already been adapted in one media and will soon be translated into another, but the writer says the upcoming Netflix series won't adhere as closely to the source material as the recently released audio drama adaptation.

“Part of the joy of doing the audio adaptation was going, 'This is going to be the nearest thing we can be to those first three graphic novels and hopefully all of those graphic novels,'” Gaiman said at the virtual DC FanDome event Saturday. “What we’re doing with Netflix is saying okay, ‘It’s still going to start in 1916 but the thing that happens in The Sandman #1, the main story is now -- how does that change the story?’”

Gaiman is referencing Morpheus' decades-long captivity, and subsequent escape, as shown in the first issue of The Sandman, which was first published in 1988. The Netflix series will still establish Morpheus' capture in 1916, but will be set in present day, meaning that the character's imprisonment will have been extended to over a century.

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The audio drama is a more straightforward adaptation of the comic series' first three storylines -- "Preludes & Nocturnes," "Doll's House," and "Dream Country."

Gaiman further expanded on the liberties that could be taken in the Netflix series, saying, “What is that going to do to the gender of characters -- what is that going to do to the nature of characters?”

He summarized the differences, stating the television series would be a “slightly looser [than the audio adaptation] but still faithful adaptation.”

Helmed by Dirk Maggs and narrated by Neil Gaiman, Audible's The Sandman stars the voices of James McAvoy, Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis and Michael Sheen. The audio drama is available now through Audible.

The Sandman series on Netflix will have Gaiman, Allan Heinberg, and David S. Goyer acting as executive producers and writers.

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