Everything you didn’t notice in Netflix’s teaser for The Sandman!

Netflix has finally unveiled a first look at their upcoming live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s sprawling fantasy epic The Sandman. Fans have been awaiting an adaptation of the seminal comic for over 30 years, so they expect it to be nothing short of perfect. And from the looks of the teaser — which features Gaiman taking a tour of the set and quick interviews with stars Tom Sturridge (Dream) and Gwendoline Christie (Lucifer) — it certainly looks promising. Check it out:

While teaser was pretty short, there’s a lot to dissect, so let’s dive into some details you may have missed!

The Sandman reveals Dream’s totems of power!

Fans will recognize a lot of sets and props from this teaser, starting with three of the most iconic objects from the comic: a pouch of sand, a helm, and a ruby, all of which belong to main character Dream. All of them look extremely similar to their comic counterparts, as if they’ve been pulled right off the page:

One of the first big things Dream does in The Sandman is go on a quest to reclaim his totems after they’re taken during his decades-long imprisonment by the wizard Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance). It makes sense that they’d show up in the first season.

If we’re really going to scrutinize the details and compare these props to the items in the comic, I’d say the pouch is slightly darker in tone than the light brown pouch of the books. The ruby is much smaller than it is on the page. The helm is perfect.

Overall, these are all improvements. There’s nothing to complain about here.

Matthew the Raven (and friend) makes his debut

Fan-favorite character Matthew (Patton Oswalt) is a raven who serves as Dream’s loyal messenger. Check out our first look at him:

But Matthew isn’t the only raven who shows up in the teaser. The other notable raven is black and white and held by Gaiman himself. Neil Gaiman has now confirmed that this other raven is Jessamy, one of Matthew’s predecessors.

The Sandman goes to Hell

“Holy shit,” Neil Gaiman say upon seeing the magnificent Sandman set in Leavesden Studios, which incidentally is also the same studio where parts of the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon is being filmed. Every fan had exactly the same reaction as Gaiman. It really is quite a sight to behold.

Let’s look at some locations that might be familiar to comic readers!

Gaiman takes us into the Undercroft, the room where Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) attempts to capture Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) but mistakenly imprisons her brother Dream. “Our art department, our set decorators, our production designers… they are wizards,” Gaiman says.

At one point, we see a placard at a hotel announcing a “Cereal Convention.” Why are fans delighted by this? Because it tells us that the first season will adapt the gruesomely wonderful issue “Collectors,” which takes place at a literal serial killer convention. The disturbing Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook) is the guest of honor. Have you caught on yet?

Some of the concept art is astounding, too. Look at this side-by-side comparison of Dream escaping his imprisonment in the comic, and how it will look in the Netflix series:

We also get a first glimpse at Dream’s first interaction with Lucifer in Hell. Again, it’s beautiful, although Hell looks quite a bit different than it does in the comics. Perhaps they’re going for a darker and more atmospheric vibe. Either way, it checks out.

The sets are immense; Netflix hired Outlander production designer Jon Gary Steele to work on them. If you’ve ever seen Outlander, you know ow just how spectacular his designs can be.

Gargoyles and spellbooks

We get a look at a few other props. Below, Gaiman holds up Abel’s adorable pet gargoyle Goldie. And if you peek at the bottom of the photo, you might see the top of Gregory’s head, Gregory being the pet of Abel’s brother Cain.

Finally, behold the Magdalene Grimoire, the tome of spells Burgess uses to summon Dream into the Order of Ancient Mysteries.

A new Sandman cast member? 

The cast for Netflix’s The Sandman is absolutely stacked. But the series is so sprawling that there are still a ton of characters yet to be cast, including Hob Gadling, Mad Hettie, Urania Blackwell Bette, Calliope, William Shakespeare, and more. More cast announcements are sure to arrive in the coming months, but until then we have a few rumors to ponder.

According to What’s On Netflix, Elanor Fanyinka (Tom & Jerry) has joined the cast as Rachel, the former lover of John Constantine. However, this casting is still to be officially announced by Netflix.

The Sandman on Netflix is still in production. Hopefully, we’ll see its release sometime in 2022.

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