Neil Gaiman explains why Tom Ellis isn’t playing Lucifer in The Sandman

A brief history of (DC’s version of) Lucifer, the lord of hell: the character first appeared back in the early ’90s in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. The main character, Dream, has to visit hell to retrieve some items that had been stolen from him, and has several run-ins with the suave Lucifer.

The character survives the series and goes on to run his own nightclub in LA. This is roughly where we pick up with him in the TV show Lucifer, where he’s played by Tom Ellis. That show was kind of a supernatural police procedural that ended last year. Naturally, fans were curious if Ellis would reprise the role in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of The Sandman, but the producers went with Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie instead. She was the big reveal in a recent trailer Netflix released in anticipation of its Geeked Week event:

So why is Christie in and Ellis out? Neil Gaiman, who is also producing the Netflix show, responded to a question about it on Twitter:

"Because his Lucifer, while inspired by the Lucifer in Sandman, is so far away in terms of Sandman continuity by the end of LUCIFER, that it’s easier on everyone to go back to the version in the comics. And this way you don’t know what our Lucifer is going to do. Tom’s is lovable."

How the Lucifer on Lucifer is different from the Lucifer in The Sandman

Unsurprisingly, Gaiman is right on the money: even early on in Lucifer, the title character little resembled the version we’ll meet in The Sandman. On Lucifer, the devil — somewhat counter-intuitively — is a good guy deep down. In The Sandman, Lucifer lives up to his reputation as a diabolical beast.

Given how different the two versions of the character are, even calling this a “recasting” is generous; this is the first time we’ll see The Sandman’s Lucifer onscreen. And given how much ass Gwendoline Christie kicks, I’m pretty psyched for it.

The Sandman will come out on Netflix this year, although we don’t have a release date yet.

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h/t Den of Geek