English actor Tom Sturridge looks note-perfect as Dream on the set of Netflix’s The Sandman, right down to the all-black outfit and glum expression.
Filming is officially underway on Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and things are looking splendid. Gaiman himself already took us on a tour of some of the sets, and his reaction (“Holy s**t!”) should be enough to assuage fans worried about the many ways a TV version could mess up the story.
The Sandman is a very abstract, very complex comic book, which is probably why it’s never been successfully adapted despite debuting over 30 years ago. The main character is Dream, aka Morpheus, aka the Sandman, an anthropomorphic personification of dreams. He and his siblings — Death, Desire, Despair, and so on — all attend to different aspects of the human condition, and Dream is known to take his job very seriously (perhaps too seriously; the guy is kinda mopey and dour a lot of the time).
The Sandman has a very impressive cast that includes the likes of Gwendoline Christie, Stephen Fry, Charles Dance and Patton Oswalt. Dream is played by British actor Tom Sturridge, who looks eerily like Morpheus as depicted in the comics. (He also looks like a young Neil Gaiman, on whom the character was modeled.) We now have the first on-set pics showing Sturridge in costume, and he looks just about perfect.
Okay, so Sturridge isn’t quite as ghostly pale as Dream is in the comics, but you have to make some allowances for the realities of live-action filmmaking. His glum expression, his messy black hair, his all-black outfit; that’s about as close to Dream as I think any live-action actor is likely to get.
I’m very excited about this project. We don’t have a premiere date for The Sandman just yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye out.
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