Neil Gaiman shoots down Sandman director rumors

Netflix’s is adapting Neil Gaiman’s comic The Sandman for TV, and rumors are flying about the big names involved. Don’t believe everything you hear, though.

With Netflix’s anticipated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman waiting to begin production (after its original schedule was thrown off by to coronavirus), we’ve now officially entered the period of constant rumor and speculation. But thankfully, Gaiman himself is on hand to shoot down false rumors on his Twitter account.

The latest Sandman rumor had it that the Netflix show managed to land Doctor Who and Black Mirror director Toby Haynes. However, as the news started to gain some traction and get reported on various websites, Gaiman stepped in. “Much as we love Toby Haynes, and would be thrilled to work with him on Sandman, this isn’t actually Real News, I’m afraid, and isn’t true,” he tweeted.

Weirdly, even after Gaiman debunked this rumor on August 3, some sites still went ahead and reported it, but I think we can officially put it to bed.

Maybe we can take the rumors as evidence of how excited people are to see Gaiman’s seminal comic series adapted for the screen. Gaiman gets inundated with tweets asking when we can expect a release date announcement. Ever honest, he tells them like it is:

When will we get to see the first season of The Sandman? “We have to start shooting it first.” Maybe this wasn’t the detailed answer we were all hoping for, but at least it’s something.

During his panel at Comic-Con@Home, Sandman executive producer David S. Goyer pointed out that things were originally supposed to get rolling in May. “I believe we were in the early scripting stage.”

So we’ll be waiting for a while to see Dream, Death and the rest of the Endless on the small screen. To tide us over, Sandman artist Marc Hempel — who worked on Sandman: The Kindly Ones — took it upon himself to create a comic page featuring Morpheus wearing a face mask. The result is everything you would expect and more, and comes with Gaiman’s personal stamp of approval:

The face mask does make Dream look really cool.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels