After literal decades of development, the fervent prayers of millions of fans, and the exhausted efforts of poor, used-up Joseph Gordon Levitt, it’s finally here: Actual goddamn footage of an actual goddamn TV version of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, in the form of the trailer for Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of the beloved comics series, released today at Comic-Con.
And, hey: Are we being rubes here, or does this look…Actually pretty good? We can’t say we’re completely sold on Tom Sturridge as the show’s central figure, Dream; there’s a very specific blend of self-involved arrogance and self-involved moping baked into that character, and almost any actor would struggle to nail it out of the box. Kirby Howell-Baptiste seems to be on more even footing as Gaiman’s deeply empathetic version of Death, though, and Boyd Holbrook is pretty convincing as the show’s version of literal walking nightmare The Corinthian—who appears to be getting an enhanced role from the relatively small (but deeply memorable) one he plays in Gaiman’s comics.
More importantly, though, Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and Allan Heinberg seem to have nailed the sweeping, surreal scope and tone of Sandman, with shots of Hell, the realm of Dream’s sibling Desire, and one very unlucky diner all exuding the proper sense of mystery and dread. (We also get a quick bit of David Thewlis as the resident of said diner, and, yeah: This is probably going to be a creepy one.)
A few other tidbits from the panel today: Mark Hamill will appear in the series, voicing Dream’s pumpkin-headed janitor, Mervyn Pumpkinhead. And, somewhat amazingly, legendary Sandman covers artist Dave McKean is also involved in the project; at Gaiman’s personal request, he provided unique end credits art for each episode of the show.
Sandman has lingered in the popular consciousness for more than 30 years now because it’s more than just a supernatural adventure: Obsessed, like its author, with stories, it’s often meandering, digressive, and, yeah, a little bit pretentious. (While also being very human and funny; there’s a reason they’ve got Patton Oswalt in this thing as a talking raven.) That’s a tall order for any TV show to live up to, but from this brief look, we don’t see any real red flags indicating why it can’t finally dream itself into life when Netflix unleashes the show in full in a couple of weeks.