After months of secrecy and plenty of speculation, Netflix has finally announced the cast of The Sandman, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s critically-acclaimed graphic novel that has been in the works (in one form or another) for decades and started filming in late 2020.

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Leading the cast (as has been rumoured for a while) will be Tom Sturridge as Dream, a metaphysical “Lord of the Dreaming” and the main character of the series, who is captured by an occult group and imprisoned for 70 years before escaping and trying to rebuild his kingdom.

Joining Sturridge will be Game of Thrones stars Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance as Lucifer (described as “ruler of Hell”) and Roderick Burgess (“Charlatan, blackmailer and magician”) respectively, Unforgotten’s Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain and People Just Do Nothing’s Asim Chaudry as Abel (who are residents of Dream’s realm), Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, chief librarian of Dream’s realm and Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, “an escaped nightmare who wises to taste all that the world has in store.”

The Sandman is co-written by Gaiman, showrunner Allan Heinberg and executive producer David S. Goyer, and the series is described as “a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven.”

“The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he's made during his vast existence,” a Netflix summary added.

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“For the last thirty-three years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head,” executive producer and original author Gaiman said in a release.

“I'm unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can't wait until the people out there get to see what we've been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there.

“This is astonishing, and I'm so grateful to the actors and to all of The Sandman collaborators — Netflix, Warner Bros., DC, to Allan Heinberg and David Goyer, and the legions of crafters and geniuses on the show — for making the wildest of all my dreams into reality.”

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The Sandman will stream on Netflix at a later date. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide.

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