Neil Gaiman shoots down The Sandman release date rumors

Fans of Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic The Sandman, are clutching at straws when it comes to potential news regarding the upcoming live-action Netflix adaptation. The show is officially set to premiere this year, but we have neither a full trailer nor a release date. Recently, you may have seen a rumored premiere date circling the web, but it was a false alarm that Gaiman himself shot down.

The Sandman is famously hard to explain. It’s about a family of anthropomorphic personifications of different aspects of the human condition, called The Endless. We mainly follow Dream, the literal embodiment of dreams, as he goes about his duties as one of the Endless, exploring his impact on dreamers across the universe.

Netflix announced their plans to adapt The Sandman into a live-action show back in 2019. Since the announcement, things have been moving forward smoothly. Filming is complete, and we already have several cast announcements: Tom Sturridge is playing Dream and Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays fan favorite character Death. So far, Netflix has given fans a behind-the-scenes teaser as well as a short first look trailer. That’s not much to go on, but it looks incredible.

So what about that Sandman release date rumor? 

If you’ve been looking for news about The Sandman, chances are that you’ve come across someone naming June 3 as the supposed release date. After seeing the date show up for the first time in a report from IGN, fans started to get carried away. However, before things got completely out of hand, Gaiman calmed things down. “Everyone involved in Sandman is a bit puzzled as to where they got that date from as it’s not on anyone’s list of possible 2022 Sandman release dates,” he wrote on Twitter.

The IGN article has since removed the false premiere date. We all make mistakes.

Audible’s The Sandman: Act III is complete! 

On a lighter note, Gaiman also confirmed that the third installment of Audible’s ongoing audio dramatization of The Sandman is officially complete. Not only that, but he’s currently listening to it and loving it.

The New York Times bestselling audiobook features a star-studded cast of voice actors, including James McAvoy (Dream), Kat Dennings (Death), and Neil Gaiman himself as the narrator. Act III won’t be the last we get of Audible’s Sandman, since it only takes us up to volume 8, “The World’s End.” There are 10 volumes in total.

Additionally, Neil Gaiman chatted with Empire Magazine for their upcoming issue. Could we get more Netflix Sandman news there? Or maybe even some stills from the series?

Between the next part of the audio adaptation and the upcoming Netflix live-action adaptation, 2022 is shaping up to be the year of The Sandman!

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