The Boys creator Eric Kripke recalls his failed Sandman adaptation

As the number one streaming TV show in the world, Netflix’s The Sandman couldn’t have had a better debut. Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic endured numerous failed live-action adaptation attempts over the years. Until Netflix came along, nobody ever seemed to crack it, not even Eric Kripke, the acclaimed showrunner behind The Boys and Supernatural.

Clearly, Kripke is a man who knows what it takes to bring a beloved graphic novel to the small screen. And The Boys wasn’t a case of beginner’s luck. Earlier in his career, he attempted to tackle Gaiman’s comic. “WB gave me a crack at The Sandman but said it had to be network,” Kripke revealed on Twitter. “It was my favorite comic, inspired much of [Supernatural], so I tried. Neil was kind and patient but, ultimately, it would’ve been a bad show.”

Ultimately, he’s happy that Gaiman decided to pull the plug on his script. “I’m glad he held out. Sandman on Netflix is lush, stunning. GO WATCH!”

Despite the fact that Kripke’s Sandman TV show never happened, there are no hard feelings. In fact, Gaiman was impressed by the script. “It was a terrific network TV version of Sandman. But when you make a network TV version of Sandman you lose an awful lot of what makes it Sandman,” the author tweeted, adding that Kripke “did a great job considering the limitations.”

Michael Jackson wanted to play Morpheus in The Sandman

Back in the day, pop legend Michael Jackson used to throw his hat into the ring to play all sorts of characters. He famously wanted to play Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, a role that eventually went to David Bowie. At one point he wanted to play Spider-Man.

And now we learn that he was keen on playing Dream in The Sandman. Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gaiman remembered the time: “By 1996, I was being taken to Warners, where the then-president of Warner Bros. sat me down and told me that Michael Jackson had phoned him the day before and asked him if he could star as Morpheus in The Sandman. So, there was a lot of interest in this and they knew that it was one of the Crown Jewels and what did I think? And I was like, ‘Ooh.’”

The version of The Sandman that Jackson wanted in on never came to be. Let’s be thankful that Gaiman decided to bide his time and wait for the right opportunity to come along. I can’t imagine anyone playing Dream of the Endless as impressively as Tom Sturridge.

All 11 episodes of The Sandman season 1 are currently streaming on Netflix.

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