The Sandman Special Edition

I N P A R T N E R S H I P W I T H N E T F L I X | J U LY 2 0 2 2

OFFICIAL

SPECIAL EDITION CAST AND CREW INTERVIEWS

T HE E XCLUS IVE BEHIND-T HE -SCE NE S STORY OF ON E O F T HE MOST A NTICIPAT E D ADAPTAT IONS OF ALL T IM E

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CONTENTS THE SANDMAN EDITION

BACK CO VER

BRAND NEW EXCLUSIVE A RT WORK

BY LEGENDA RY THE SANDMAN A RTIST J.H. WILLIAM S III

THE MAKING OF

THE SANDMAN

IMAGE CREDIT: NETFLIX

The creators of the graphic novel and Netflix’s new show on bringing an epic to life. PG. 6.

PRODUCTION DESIGN AND VFX

How do you build a world like the Dreaming? The production designer and VFX supervisor take us on the journey. PG. 24.

CAST INTERVIEWS Meet Dream, Desire, Death, Johanna Constantine, The Corinthian, and Lucifer Morningstar, inhabitants of The Sandman’s world. PG. 14.

COSTUME AND PROPS

It’s about the detail. The Sandman’s property master and costume designer talk us through their creations. PG. 30.

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LETTER FROM SHOWRUNNER

WELCOME TO THE SANDMAN IN MAY OF 2019, David S. Goyer made my deepest, wildest fanboy dream come true by asking if I wanted to adapt Neil Gaiman’s award-winning, best-selling The Sandman into a streaming series.

Naturally, I said no.

That’s not entirely true. First, I said, “May I have 24 hours to re-read the books?” Then, after re-reading, I said no.

Not because I didn’t want the job, but because this was The Sandman.

The universally beloved masterpiece written by Neil Gaiman, one of the most intimidatingly brilliant writers of our time.

I asked David why Neil Gaiman himself (who had just wrapped Good Omens) wasn’t going to be the one to adapt The Sandman. For that matter, why wasn’t David S. Goyer, the writer of Batman Begins and Man of Steel, writing and running the show?

Especially since David and Neil had been working together to adapt The Sandman into a feature franchise?

David said he had hoped to be the one to do The Sandman, but he was busy writing, running, and directing Apple TV+’s Foundation. And Neil was already obligated to Good Omens II and Anansi Boys.

I then felt the need to remind David that The Sandman was unfilmable.

That a legion of supremely talented writers and directors had labored for over 30 years to bring The Sandman to the screen.

David patiently explained that those adaptations hadn’t moved forward because they had tried to make The Sandman into something it could never be: a two-hour movie.

But in the streaming era, the success

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of shows like Game of Thrones and Watchmen made it possible to pitch The Sandman as a multi-season epic.

David assured me our adaptation would be faithful and—most importantly—it would be authorized and supervised by Executive Producer Neil Gaiman.

Which meant that I would get to hang out with Neil Gaiman.

One week later, I met Neil Gaiman for dinner with David Goyer in Los Angeles. It was an audition of sorts, but it must have gone well because the next day, the three of us were pitching The Sandman to the streaming networks. Two weeks later, we had a deal with Netflix. Two weeks after that, Neil, David, and I gathered at Neil’s

TH I S M AGAZINE WAS P ROD U C E D IN PAID PART N E R S HI P WI T H N ET F L I X

AT THIS MOMENT IN OUR SHARED HISTORY, WE ARE CONSTANTLY TOLD HOW DIVIDED WE ARE. BUT THE TRUTH IS WE ALL LOVE A GOOD STORY.

house in upstate NY and talked about Season One for two days, during which Neil revealed himself to be the most open, generous, and collaborative partner imaginable.

We broke the story for Episode One in those two days. We talked about ways to expand the Corinthian’s role.

We talked about casting and VFX and whether to have a narrator. But the most important thing we discussed was, “Why is it essential that we tell the story of The Sandman right now?”

The answer has informed every creative decision we’ve made since: The Sandman is an exploration of what it means to be human. To be mortal and therefore vulnerable.

Capable of being hurt, but also capable of loving and being loved. The Sandman is the story of an honorable, arrogant king who slowly—very slowly—learns how to love. How to be a loving friend, a loving brother, a loving father.

At this moment in our shared history, we are constantly being told how divided we all are. But the truth is, we all love a good story. That’s how we’reMust able lam, to connect each ulpa ea with cus dolupit other by sharing empelest, our imporerio stories and quis our pa venda dolor occusdandi dreams, which really do si come true aliquis unt, temolupta sometimes. Your reading this letter is proof of that.

I am so grateful to have the privilege of working on The Sandman with Neil and David—with our colleagues at Warner Bros. Television and Netflix—and with all the actors, directors, and creative artists who’ve devoted their time, talents, and love to a show that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I hope you’ll watch—and read and re-read the books—and I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I have.

IMAGE CREDIT:

Allan Heinberg

MAG AZ I N E Editor-in-Chief Mike Cecchini Print Editor Rosie Fletcher Editorial Director Chris Longo Creative Director Lucy Quintanilla Art Director Jessica Koynock Copy Editor Sarah Litt Sub Editor Richard Jordan Production Manager Kyle Christine Darnell Publisher Matthew Sullivan-Pond

DENOFGEEK.COM Editor-in-Chief Mike Cecchini Director of Editorial and Partnerships Chris Longo Managing Editor John Saavedra UK Editor Rosie Fletcher Associate Editors Alec Bojalad, Matthew Byrd, David Crow, Kirsten Howard, Louisa Mellor, Tony Sokol Art Director Jessica Koynock Head of Video Production Andrew Halley Senior Video Producer Nick Morgulis Head of Audience Development Elizabeth Donoghue CEO and Group Publisher Jennifer Bartner-Indeck Chief Financial Officer Peter Indeck Commercial Director Mark Wright

Showrunner and Executive Producer of Netflix’s The Sandman

UK Advertising Director Adam McDonnell THE SANDMAN EDITION | DEN OF GEEK

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THE SANDMAN COMICS H AV E LO N G B E E N CONSIDERED AN UNFILMABLE EPIC, BUT THE NEW NETFLIX SERIES IS DARING TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM…

W HAT

DR E MADE OF…

BY CHRIS FARNELL

IMAGE CREDITS: BERNARD WALSH / NETFLIX

ARE

A MS

“TUG OF LOVE BABY EATEN BY COWS.” That is the headline of the September 14, 1988 issue of The Sun newspaper in The Sandman story “Preludes and Nocturnes.”

The headline is a portent, one of many, hinting that Morpheus, the King of Dreams, has escaped his imprisonment.

The headline was also a kind of portent for the comic’s writer, Neil Gaiman, many years later.

“I didn’t, on a gut level, believe that it was all happening until I was being shown around the prop room,” Gaiman says. “I was walking around the props and being shown stuff, and there in front of me was the copy of a Sun newspaper dated September 2022, and ‘Tug of Love Baby Eaten by Cows’ was the headline. I thought, ‘It’s actually happening, and it’s real, and it’s being made by people who care and who love the original.’”

This passion for the comic is one that can be seen in every aspect of The Sandman’s production.

“You started to feel like every Sandman fan in the movie and TV world who had heard this was happening had begged, cajoled, murdered if necessary, to get onto that set and to be there making [this show],” Gaiman says.

It is not hard to see why the show has evoked such passion. The Sandman comic is one of the most iconic series in the medium’s history, and it played a pivotal role in the perception of comics as a serious storytelling form.

“Like a lot of people at the time, I picked up the first issue of The 8 DEN OF GEEK | THE SANDMAN EDITION

Sandman as it was published,” says David S. Goyer, one of The Sandman’s executive producers.

In the wake of Alan Moore making a big splash on Swamp Thing and Watchmen, a lot of people were saying that Neil Gaiman was the next big thing from the British invasion.

“I loved the first issue, didn’t know what to expect, and just like the rest of the world, it was obvious that a major new voice had arrived on the scene,” Goyer says.

The series follows Morpheus, one of the immortal Endless and the personification of the concept of dreaming, as he escapes from captivity and regains his power. But that is only

Don’t watch this. This is terrible.’ I wanted to keep that as a superpower.”

But times have changed, the world has changed, and Neil Gaiman has changed. He is no longer an up-andcoming comics writer, but a successful author, screenwriter, and producer, with the Good Omens TV adaptation demonstrating he is someone to take seriously in the industry.

At the same time, the wildly diverse and often downright otherworldly settings and inhabitants of the comic’s world are now far more achievable to portray onscreen.

IT’S A STORY ABOUT A GOD WHO OVER THE COURSE OF THE TALE, SHEDS HIS GODHOOD AND LEARNS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MORTAL. — P RO DU C E R DAVI D S. GOY E R

IMAGE CREDITS: NETFLIX

Left: Tom Sturridge as Morpheus visits his sibling Desire (Mason Alexander Park). Below: Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays Death.

a prologue to a far broader and stranger story.

“It was interesting because Neil was finding his way as a writer, and this was in the early days of Vertigo Comics. DC and Neil were experimenting with how dark you could go or how much of a mature reader’s book it could be,” Goyer recalls. “I think as the book began, increasingly, it had fewer and fewer touch points to the DC Universe and became more of its own thing.

So, I’ve just been a fan ever since.

Like a lot of people, I started reading Neil’s novels and eventually became a friend and hoped that I could one day be involved in an adaptation.”

“THE SMELL TEST” It is an adaptation a lot of people have wanted to see for a very long time, but one of the reasons we haven’t seen it yet is Gaiman himself.

“I’ve now spent literally 32 years making bad adaptations of Sandman not happen,” Gaiman tells us. “And, sometimes, that took a lot of work to stop versions of Sandman, normally as movies, not happening. I always kept myself distanced from Sandman adaptations, partly because if they were going to be terrible, I needed to reserve for myself the ability to go out into the world and say, ‘No, no, no.

“We got very lucky,” Gaiman says.

“David Goyer and I had started talking about how we could do it and make it happen. And [writer/showrunner] Allan Heinberg, who had not been free or available, became free. His contract was up with somebody else. We had dinner, more or less, the day after he became free. And he turned up with a Sandman page from ‘Brief Lives’ that he had bought in 1996-ish from a gallery in New York. Lord knows how much that will be worth now.”

Going from deciding to make a TV series to making one is a famously laborious process, but in this one instance, the stars seemed to align.

Gaiman and Goyer had dinner with Heinberg on a Friday night, and by Monday morning, the contracts were signed, and the project was being pitched around. It was soon snapped up by Netflix.

Then came the work of actually creating the good Sandman adaptation THE SANDMAN EDITION | DEN OF GEEK

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Deborah Oyelade as Nada, a former lover of Dream, with Ernest Kingsley Junior as ‘Kai’ckul’, the form that Dream inhabits to Nada.

Below left: The Endless are a dysfunctional family and Desire and Dream don’t always see eye to eye.

Gaiman had fought off so many bad versions to bring about.

“One of the things that Neil will often say is, ‘Does it pass the Sandman smell test?’ We’ve changed things.

We’ve made adaptations, but it still has to feel Sandman,” says Goyer.

Heinberg also felt a great deal of responsibility approaching the work, especially under Gaiman’s oversight.

“This is his baby, and I’ve worshipped since it was born, as a fan,” Heinberg says. “I knew that Neil was executive producing it, and I wasn’t sure how this was going to go because, in television, you have to make a million decisions, and make them immediately. But very organically we discovered that the things we found the most important about Sandman, and the reason to tell the story, were the same.”

A SANDMAN MASTERCLASS If that sounds like a quality that is difficult to pin down, it’s because it is.

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When Goyer attempts to describe it, he points to elements of high fantasy, elements of fable, but also elements of soap opera.

“Our partners kept saying, ‘Can you distill Sandman down into a single sentence or two?’ And we ultimately did figure out a sentence or two,” Goyer tells us. “The first way to look at the show is, it’s a story about a god who, over the course of the story, sheds his godhood and becomes mortal and learns what it means to be mortal.”

While that sounds very lofty and metaphysical, Goyer also points out: “It’s also a melodrama. It’s a story about a really fucked-up dysfunctional family. The Endless, even though they are godlike beings, they all have their petty squabbles. Some of them hate each other. Some of them love each other. It’s just that when they have fights, entire worlds and universes suffer.”

Gaiman has naturally always been protective of The Sandman, but once the adaptation was going ahead, he became an invaluable resource for

the writers. “I feel like we got really lucky. I had full reign to do whatever I needed to do or wanted to do on a day-to-day basis. And he knew that there weren’t any decisions that I was making, moment to moment, that I wasn’t sharing with him,” Heinberg tells us. “We were emailing a million times a day and we would Zoom a minimum of three or four times a week. We would talk on the phone, usually, for long stretches on the

Behind the scenes in Morpheus’ castle. Below right: Boyd Holbrook plays The Corinthian, a nightmare who has escaped from the realm of dreams.

weekends, and he’s watching everything, and he’s seeing every costume and prop.”

For Gaiman, it was a process that revealed just how much Sandman knowledge he had been carrying around all this time.

“The weird and wonderful thing about talking with Allan about Sandman was realizing that I know more about Sandman than anybody else does and that I could answer

his questions,” Gaiman agrees. “I would just tell him everything I knew because it was important, if he was going to be there making day-by-day decisions, that he understood as much as I did. It meant that Allan was getting this sort of weird masterclass in Sandman.”

Over the course of adapting the comics to the screen, some stories have been expanded, and others were fused together, but the end result is one that Goyer believes is faithful to the source material. “I think fans are going to be shocked at how faithful it is,” he says.

A DREAM WHOSE TIME HAS COME In many ways, it is the perfect time for an adaptation of The Sandman. TV has just been through a period of long, novelistic series with storylines that progress over multiple seasons, from Game of Thrones to Breaking Bad, to Goyer’s own Foundation adaptation.

More recently, the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, toward anthology series such as Black Mirror, Love Death & Robots, and Jordan Peele’s revival of The Twilight Zone.

But The Sandman, in its original comic series form and the Netflix adaptation, straddles and bounces between both forms of storytelling.

“One of the things that’s wonderful about Sandman is all the standalone issues,” Goyer says. “The stories that sometimes didn’t even necessarily involve Morpheus, but took place in that world. And we were determined to also adapt those stories, to not leave them out in the cold.”

This hybrid of serialized and anthology-style storytelling is reflected in Morpheus, and the question, is he the protagonist of his own story?

“Sometimes he’s the protagonist and sometimes he’s the catalyst,” Goyer argues, pointing to the story in Volume 2 of The Sandman comics, “The Doll’s House.” “I would argue that Rose is the protagonist of that particular story. And ultimately, I think he’s the THE SANDMAN EDITION | DEN OF GEEK

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I’VE NOW SPENT LITERALLY 32 YEARS MAKING BAD ADAPTATIONS OF THE SANDMAN NOT HAPPEN. — N EI L GA I MA N, A U TH O R O F TH E S A N D M AN

protagonist of the sort of uber story.

Sometimes he is the host in a kind of [The Twilight Zone writer/presenter] Rod Serling-esque way.”

As much as the audience might root for Morpheus, he can also be terrifying in how powerful and distant from humanity he can be.

“He also cares about humanity in the abstract, but not in the specific,” Goyer says. “Which is interesting as well, because when you meet Death in the book and in our show, Death is a much more sympathetic character.”

Another reason why now might be the perfect time for an adaptation of The Sandman is that for many people, the last few years have taken on a dreamlike, unreal quality as the world was put on pause during the Covid lockdown.

“It felt incredibly apt,” Gaiman says.

“It felt appropriate, especially with the Sleeping Sickness, the real disease that did start as a sort of peculiar epidemic in 1916, of people just falling asleep and not waking up.”

The Sleeping Sickness epidemic plays an important role in the opening of Morpheus’ story, but making The Sandman during lockdown had an unreality of its own.

“We got to create some incredibly

dreamlike moments because we were shooting during a pandemic,” Gaiman remembers. “Probably, the most dreamlike for me is episode three. We filmed it in London and we shot it during that period of lockdown in November 2020, when nobody was allowed to leave their houses. But if you were a film crew, you were considered a vital thing and you were allowed to work.”

The lockdown meant filming in central London with no background artists or extras. Watching the episode, it’s as if the only three human beings in London, as far as you can tell, are Morpheus, Johanna Constantine, and Mad Hettie—as well as Matthew the Raven. “It creates a sort of feeling as if you are in a waking dream, because you’ve never seen that (version of ) London. That London doesn’t exist,” Gaiman says. “And yet, that was the London we were able to shoot in.”

BEYOND THE COMICS As Goyer says, from the outset the Netflix series set out to be as faithful as possible to the original Sandman comics run—but that isn’t the same

Staff and patrons of a diner have an overnight ordeal.

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Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie) and Morpheus face off in Hell.

Below right: Jenna Coleman plays Johanna Constantine.

thing as being beholden to it.

“Neil and David and I got together at Neil’s house in upstate New York, and Neil and David had already discussed a lot of really smart changes,” explains Heinberg. “One of which was doing Johanna Constantine instead of John Constantine; one was making Lucien, Lucienne. And then, early on, I believe that it was David who said, ‘We should have The Corinthian in the very first episode.’”

Doctor Who’s Jenna Coleman is a particularly surprising choice to play Johanna Constantine, in what was originally a John Constantine story.

“We were imagining someone that was more of a hot mess, sort of like John was in the books. Whether it be Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten or Sting or something like that. But then Jenna’s name came up and it was absolutely right,” Goyer recalls.

“You have an [initial] idea in your head of how a character should sound and then you start casting in a certain direction. But then an actor comes in and takes it in a completely different direction.”

The Sandman has drawn together a star cast, but beyond Tom Sturridge as Morpheus, the actors have been

chosen for reasons beyond their physical resemblance to the look of the characters in the comic.

“One of the things that’s also challenging and wonderful about Sandman is that it has a singular author, but it has multiple artists,” says Goyer. “So, multiple artists have done depictions of Lucifer, or Morpheus for that matter, so part of our challenge was trying to figure out, well, what was the singular version? Which version did we feel was sort of the platonic ideal?”

The casting process involved internal conversations, pinning down each character to one or two defining sentences and picking actors that represented them. It was a process whereby the showrunners would often surprise themselves. Gwendoline Christie (Star Wars, Game of Thrones) was originally brought in for another role, but asked to read for Lucifer, and got the part.

Casting is not the only change, however. In the comics, the rogue nightmare, The Corinthian, doesn’t appear until “The Doll’s House” arc—the second volume of the series.

But the TV show introduces him in the first episode. This decision helped the

writers realize how much untold Sandman there was to show.

“There is a lot of stuff happening off-panel that we just didn’t have pages for when the book was coming out monthly,” says Heinberg. “And Neil allowed us not only to imagine what happens between panels or off-page, but he was contributing, from the very beginning, just pitching, ‘What if? What if? What if?’ There was never a defensive pose with Neil in any way.”

It meant that the show could do things that the comics not only didn’t,

but couldn’t.

“In “The Doll’s House,” John Cameron Mitchell plays Hal. In the comic, you don’t see Hal performing or singing,” Gaiman says. “Hal comes on and talks to us about the show that he’s in, but we don’t see any performances because we don’t need to and because, honestly, comics are great for a lot of things, but the performances of songs tend not to be one of them. Here, we have John Cameron Mitchell, and we can put him up on a stage with a piano and let him rip and we can make theatrical magic.”

Work on writing a second season of The Sandman has already begun, although whether it will be made still hinges on the performance of the first series. But the show’s ambition has only grown.

“In some ways, it’s easier because we’ve educated the audience to the basic ideas. We’ve shown how the dreaming life can affect the waking world,” Goyer says.

With that groundwork done, the show can now build on those themes.

“They’re more like jazz, where you get to plan variations,” Goyer continues. “And we get to stretch our wings a bit more.”

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MEET THE CAST OF THE SANDMAN

Dreams

Made

Real

NIGHTMARES, DEMONS, ANTI-HEROES, AND THE ENDLESS MAKE UP THE CHARACTERS BROUGHT TO LIFE IN NETFLIX'S THE SANDMAN.

A

STORY SPANNING CENTURIES, set across multiple realms, Netflix's The Sandman is an ambitious epic years in the making. For fans of Neil Gaiman's seminal series getting the casting right was key. This is an ensemble piece with Tom Sturridge's Morpheus, aka Dream of the Endless, leading us through time, through Earth and The Dreaming, and literally to Hell and back, encountering larger-than-life characters along the way. We talked to Sturridge as well as Gwendoline Christie, who plays the imposing Lucifer Morningstar; Boyd Holbrook as nightmare-made-real The Corinthian; Jenna Coleman's infernal detective Johanna Constantine; and Dream's siblings, Death, played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Desire, played by Mason Alexander Park.

ONE OF THE KEY COMPONENTS OF MORPHEUS IS THE BURDEN OF HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY.

TOM STURRIDGE AS MORPHEUS » BY ED GROSS

Q:

What appealed to you about the material?

TOM STURRIDGE: For me, The Dreaming is Middle Earth, Narnia, our favorite parts of Hogwarts— everything that I’ve cared about in fantasy and literature rolled into one.

And just to have the opportunity to step into that world as fully realized as possible, it was thrilling. As far as the character itself, it’s difficult to say. I suppose it was a fear. I was afraid of doing it because I was aware of how beloved Morpheus is and also how much I loved him.

IMAGE CREDITS: NETFLIX

The pressure must be daunting?

TS: It is daunting, and it comes with an enormous responsibility. But the small comfort I took is that as it got into my blood and as I began to become aware of the responsibility, I started to also realize that, actually, one of the key components of Morpheus as a character is the burden of his own responsibility. It’s the responsibility he has for the subconscious of the universe, which is, I suppose, like the responsibility you have for the dreams of fans. It’s not quite the same as the universe, but it’s still a way to start thinking about how he feels about the world.

How does Morpheus change?

TS: Well, I think by necessity, he’s kept himself at a distance from humanity and human beings because I think when you are responsible for anything, you try to separate yourself from it so you can have an overview.

It’s like a bodyguard—you don’t fall in love with the client. And the thing that happens very early on in our story is that he is imprisoned, and for the first time in his life or in his existence, his power is taken away from him. His tools of office are stolen from him, and he is suddenly, bizarrely, quite close to human because he doesn’t have any of the powers that he’s had before, and he’s vulnerable.

That instantly changes the way that he perceives the world. The first half of our story is mainly based around his quest for his tools that have been stolen from him. And during that quest, for the first time in his existence, he has to ask for the help of human beings. I think that creates relationships that he’s never had before. He’s one of those smarter guys on the block, so when you have those relationships, you learn things, and by learning, you change.

Once he gains those powers back, does it become a balancing act?

TS: Absolutely. And I think that’s why the episode “The Sound of Her Wings,” with his sister [Death], is so important because that is the moment where he examines that balancing act and is trying to figure out who this new version of himself is. He has restored himself to the power he once had, but he has been through this extraordinary experience and therefore is different. I think what’s beautiful about the relationship he has with his sister is that it’s unlike other ones that you have experienced so far in the story. They’re equals. I think the way she educates him is that

if you bear witness to this simple experience of human existence, you can feel something. I think that really changes everything for him.

And his relationship with Desire?

TS: That is a tough one. And it’s one that is, on the surface, incredibly antagonistic. Neil never liked the Endless to be described as gods because he says that God has to be believed in, whereas the Endless, they still exist whether you believe in them or not. But what could be disengaging about a story about them is that they’re not like us, yet beyond everything, this is a story of a very traditional family in which siblings don’t get on with each other.

What are your overall thoughts on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman universe?

TS: It’s stupefying; it’s like you can’t really hold it all together in your head.

I think what I find beautiful about it is when he began, he had no idea what it would become on a storytelling level, but mainly on the way that it would be received by the world. And so I think when you have that kind of youthful naïvety when you start something, and it’s just this tiny little egg, then it really grows organically. That’s why it’s so complex, so diverse, so enormous because it really started as a seed, and he had no idea how it was going to grow.

Do you think future experiences might pale in comparison?

TS: I mean, I would be surprised if ever again, in my life, I’m standing at the gates of hell talking to a raven.

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» BY ALANA JOLI ABBOTT

Q:

Are you a people person the way that Death is?

KIRBY HOWELL-BAPTISTE: I’m quite a people person. I feel like I probably fall somewhere between Death and Dream. I am a people person for a while, and then I need some sort of solo time. I need some time to feed the pigeons and come to myself.

What were the challenges of becoming Death?

KHB: I was really lucky with stepping into a role that is very subversive. Most of the time, Death is portrayed as really menacing. But I think where I was given a lot of creative freedom from the beginning was that [The Sandman’s] idea of Death is completely different. She’s the life and soul of the party. She’s someone who you actually want to be around, so it makes it a lot less scary. I found that I could actually process a lot of my own loss through the role. I think we all would hope for our loved ones, when they go, and also obviously when we go, that we are taken care of. That we’re ushered from this place to whatever is next.

How familiar were you with The Sandman before you were cast?

KHB: I had read The Sandman years and years ago. I was a fan of Neil’s writing from American Gods originally.

Then from that, I found Sandman, and I absolutely loved it. Death was my favorite character. And as [fans] know, there’s so much further for her to go, which is really, really exciting.

KIRBY HOWELLBAPTISTE A S D E AT H

As a fan, what was it like working with Neil Gaiman?

KHB: Oh, that was amazing. I could really talk to him about this character that he has known for years. It was really amazing to have him guide me through who he saw her as and who he created her to be. But I didn’t feel like there was a pressure to somehow completely understand what was in his head and portray that exactly.

There was definitely room for my own interpretation, which is wonderful, and is what every artist dreams of.

MASON ALEXANDER PARK AS DESIRE » BY ED GROSS

Q:

Who is Desire to you and what was their appeal?

MASON ALEXANDER PARK: Well, Desire is deeply appealing to me as an actor, a fan of this world and a fan of Neil Gaiman. Desire is any aspect of desire that you can think of in your own experience with the word, and with the actual feeling . It’s really a complicated thing to think about the concept of desire and how it manifests in a million different ways, both positive and negative, sexual and emotional. To be able to look at the character's choices and relationship with Dream through that lens is such a beautiful roadmap that explains their behavior, which definitely needs explanation sometimes.

What’s the nature of Desire’s relationship with Dream?

MAP: Desire really is a bit of an antagonist but isn’t a traditional antagonist by any means. They’re just doing what they really are meant to do, what they’re designed to do, and not really straying from that. It’s kind of amazing that there’s both good, and I don’t want to say evil because Desire is in no way evil, but malicious intent.

Desire’s always up to something, so you get to play with both sides. It’s someone who is both all the good, amazing things that you want and need and also the darker stuff, too.

Does Desire have the chance to change in the show like Dream?

MAP: I think Desire is constantly changing. I think that’s built into who

they are. I think that the character is ever-evolving and ever-changing, in the same way that our desires are changing, moment to moment, second to second, day to day.

It really comes down to a dysfunctional family…

MAP: That’s what makes it so much fun, and so human, and real, which is hilarious. These characters are everything that is human and also everything that is not, in a very strange way. It’s fun to see the humanity and the dynamics that we would recognize as an audience play out in such a grandiose way over millennia. It’s exciting to think we’re not that different. That’s what makes it really fun and also really accessible as an actor to play these parts.

HE’S A MISCHIEVOUS RASCAL WHO LOVES SUCKING EVERYTHING OUT OF LIFE THAT HE CAN.

BOYD HOLBROOK AS THE CORINTHIAN » BY ED GROSS

Q:

IMAGE CREDITS: NETFLIX

Were you a big fan of The Sandman before this?

BOYD HOLBROOK: I became a bigger Sandman fan than ever getting ready for this. It's such a cool graphic novel. It was the spring of 2020. My wife and I started checking it out. I usually give her stuff when I like it.

It’s like, “What do you think about this?” She’s my moral compass. I auditioned and thought it went great.

And then I didn’t hear anything for like six months.

That’s got to be murder. How do you handle that?

BH: You know what? I am so used to it at this point; I’ve had so many ups and downs that I’ve unfortunately become very callous and cool with a lot of it.

It’s just the way it is. [Once I heard] I got on the phone with Neil Gaiman and [showrunner and executive producer] Allan Heinberg, and we all just started talking, and I was really excited about the character and thought it was such a cool thing to play. At the same time, I was a little concerned about the glasses he wears.

Acting is in the eyes, man. But we just had a lot of practical, pragmatic conversations about the entry points of the character—what this guy is, who he is and coming to find out, when reading the comics, that maybe he seemed a little bit more flamboyant there. But what we captured was how he is so successful in getting you to welcome him into your home before you realize you’ve made the mistake of inviting in a serial killer.

What did you do as an actor to compensate for the fact your eyes weren’t there?

BH: I think early on I understood that a trap would be to do more mouthacting or something like that. I just quickly realized that the focus should be on what he exudes. I acted without worrying about the eyes. Essentially just doing what’s before me and being me, because that’s the only person I can be in the context of the show.

How do you view The Corinthian?

BH: I think he’s a mischievous rascal, who loves sucking everything out of life that he can in terms of stimulation.

He literally was a captive prisoner who’s now out in society and able to run amok because there are no consequences for him. So it’s really embracing that, as an actor, as a person, as a human being, and enjoying that. It’s a ball. It was totally a great experience.

What’s chilling about it is his ability to spread that evil.

BH: Yeah, exactly. The spirit vaporizes into other people—that is really spooky. And getting a sense of enjoyment out of that. Embracing the dark stuff. What’s also interesting is that everyone has dreams and they’re all fragmented, so it’s an element everybody will relate to. As a kid, it’s that element of Freddy Krueger where I didn’t want to fall asleep, because who knows what will happen? This feels like a continuation of that, so it’s really an interesting concept to play with in the world of dreams itself.

How did you find working with Tom Sturridge and interacting with him as Morpheus?

BH: Well, Tom is incredible. I don’t think there could be anybody else who could play the master of dreams.

He’s such an amazing and iconic character that’s just built in with this sadness, that I think they really do a good job of walking the line of not making it too heavy and making it a little enjoyable and funny in the show, especially with Matthew the Raven.

But we didn’t work together until my very last episode or sequence. I’d constantly see Tom across the room, going to the set covered in his hazmat suit. You know, Covid protocol, which was all so bizarre. I kept asking people around me how it was going, and it was hard to get a read on things because you couldn’t read people and get an understanding of it. It’s such a communal job where you’ve got 100 people, at least, around you at all times, and normally you can pick up on the vibe on set of everything. But with this one, we were all just covered up because of Covid.

What do you think the power of this show is?

BH: It’s something that’s universally relatable, which is The Dreaming.

It’s our subconscious and our consciousness, which everyone deals with every day and it’s a vastly endless spiral of thoughts and revelations.

Revelations about who we are as humanity. I think that’s the through line in the show, that every audience member is also living two lives when they fall asleep.

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GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE

AS LUC I F E R » BY ALANA JOLI ABBOTT

Q:

What appealed to you about taking on Lucifer?

GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: When I finished playing Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones, I really wanted the opportunity to play a different kind of role, a range of parts. When [showrunner] Allan [Heinberg] offered me Lucifer, I was hugely flattered and excited for the opportunity to play someone so evil.

Lucifer is a lifetime of disappointment and distilled rage. [Lucifer] isn’t interested in doing the right thing, only in satisfying their immediate needs, no matter how petty.

We all wanted Lucifer to, in some

essential way, look like Lucifer in the comics. I am someone who, as a performer, can look androgynous, and that felt right for this Lucifer.

How was the filming process?

GC: It was so phenomenal working with Jamie Childs, the director, Allan Heinberg, Neil Gaiman, David Goyer…

They were just all so collaborative, and they all had a very real and tangible passion for the comics. They really wanted to preserve the comics whilst bringing real life to them. Neil wrote the comics [30] years ago, so sometimes he would say there were things that he would change or have updated. But because he had such a strong voice throughout it all, you felt

very much in the best hands.

I adored working with Tom Sturridge. From the minute that I met him—he was in costume, and in character—I knew that he was dedicated to this project.

You’re in an intense mental battle with Dream. What was that like?

GC: I've always been very lucky with the fights that I've done in the past; it's been all about the narrative, and that's something I've been really dedicated to. So it felt like another step forward.

It's not physical, but you really have to be connected to the thoughts. The fun begins with how you investigate that. I also worked with an amazing dancer on how that could be expressed.

» BY ALANA JOLI ABBOTT

Q:

How was it playing a character who comes with so many expectations?

JENNA COLEMAN: The character on the page was so well written. I had such a handle on what I wanted to do with Allan [Heinberg]’s ideas and Neil [Gaiman]'s ideas. It's going to be really interesting because The Sandman is so many things to so many people.

Because I'm playing the female version of John Constantine, of course, that's going to bring comment, but hopefully, people are excited. I think what Allan wrote on the page really works; it offered quite a different lens into her dynamic with Morpheus.

JENNA COLEMAN AS JOHANNA C O N S TA N T I N E

What are your favorite things about Johanna Constantine?

JC: She's tortured, and she's a lone warrior. Inside [she has] this big open heart; she's lost everyone close to her.

She can't let anybody in because she's had too much hurt. Everything is about defense mechanisms— cynicism, humor, and wit—and the way in which she has to go through the world guarding her heart and being locked down to not let anybody in. I loved the way that she uses humor and that independent streak.

[She has] a rouge-ishness, a playfulness, and a massive sense of fun. Underlying all of that is someone with an incredibly lived life and a heaviness through the ability to perform exorcisms and the cost of that. So you've got that depth, but you've got that humor. Then that character meets Morpheus, and that dynamic [adds] this whole other interesting element. Because the similarities, the differences, the arrogance, the egos, the meeting of the two was really fun to play. Also, the fact that they ended up really liking each other but don't want to tell each other that.

You’re also playing your modern character’s ancestor. What was that like?

JC: Oh, so fun. She absolutely has a kind of a cruelty to her. [She’s] a lot more villainous for sure.

PRODUCTION DESIGN AND VFX

ENTER THE DREAMING

The Sandman production designer and visual FX supervisor take us inside the making of the realm of dreams. » BY LACY BAUGHER

Morpheus stands in front of his castle in the realm of dreams.

NEIL GAIMAN’S LANDMARK comic series The Sandman is many things: fantastical, idiosyncratic, dark as hell (sometimes literally!), and, honestly, often downright weird. Stuffed to bursting with gods, monsters, real-life historical figures, talking animals, and magic, it’s ultimately a story about the power of stories—why we love them and why we tell them in the first place.

Netflix’s The Sandman arrives this August with a ten-episode first season that fully embraces every dark, largerthan-life aspect of Gaiman’s story on a fantastical journey through worlds both familiar and alien. With lush visuals and beautifully intricate sets, there are moments that feel as though they were explicitly lifted from the pages of the original comic, as well as episodes that deftly blend the stories of multiple issues into something completely new.

“It had to be amazing, no matter what we did,” Jon Gary Steele, Production Designer for The Sandman, tells Den of Geek. “Everyone felt that energy and that excitement. We were trying to keep it as cool as the graphic novel—stunning, sexy, and beautiful.’”

In the most basic sense, The Sandman follows the story of Morpheus, informally referred to as Dream, the Lord of the Dreaming, and one of seven immortal beings known as the Endless who are each tasked with watching over aspects of reality.

“That’s what everybody’s said before: that it’s unadaptable, isn’t it?” Steele laughs. “It’s epic. And I loved it. It was so interesting to work on something so out there. Every department had to do more and [be] crazier than even we thought it would be. There's a lot of wild stuff.”

Mirroring the episodic nature of the comic itself, each installment of the Netflix series feels self-contained, seamlessly shifting between time periods, settings, and genres even as it tells a cohesive larger story.

“One of the big challenges on this show is just every episode [is different],” VFX Supervisor, Ian Markiewicz says. “Each episode has new main players, it has new locations, it has new bit characters,

PRODUCTION DESIGN AND VFX and new additional background.

It’s set at a different time [with] a new wardrobe.”

The shifting settings follow Dream and a wide-ranging cast of supporting and ancillary characters through a series of both high fantasy quests and contemporary problems, set in everything from modern-day London to the realm of dreams.

“Episode one is wildly different from everything else. It’s a period piece. And episode two is wildly different from episode one. It’s a fantasy, the first time we’re in the Dreaming,” Markiewicz explains.

“And episode three, it’s the first time we’re in contemporary London, and there’s this fantastical demon hunter component. Then we go to Hell, then we’re in John Dee’s diner, and it’s a bottle episode. Each and every time we’re in a different place, a different time, and [only] Dream is the throughline.”

Though the series begins with Dream imprisoned, captured by a mortal occultist, and stripped of the totems of his office (a pouch of sand, a powerful ruby known as the Dreamstone, and the disturbing Helmet of Dreams), the episodes that follow see the newly freed Dream attempt to seek revenge on his captor, rebuild his kingdom, reconnect with his family (who have mixed feelings about his return), and track down his missing symbols of power.

“It’s not a procedural where we’re doing similar things next week.

There’s [always] something that’s going to be different about the next episode,” Markiewicz explains. “And Dream may not be onscreen for every frame of the show. [But he] is always going to be at the heart of things.”

ADAPTING THE U N A DA P TA B L E

Part of the reason previous attempts to adapt The Sandman floundered is the sheer breadth of the story and the lore involved. Though the original story is told in graphic novel form, its roots are in classical literature, 26 DEN OF GEEK | THE SANDMAN EDITION

Morpheus with a hippogriff later to be rendered in CGI. Below: Lourdes Faberes on the diner set from episode "24/7".

mythology, and folklore from a wide variety of cultures. Its scope is almost terrifyingly vast—it touches on life, death, heaven, hell, and everything (quite literally) in between. Trying to adapt its complicated plot for the screen is a truly Herculean task, one that took hundreds of people and nearly a dozen secondary companies to pull off.

“It was definitely daunting,” Markiewicz admits. “One of the things that’s always so challenging—which is also what’s exciting about it—is, ok, we’ve inherited this property, this amazing piece of artwork and literature and fantasy. How can we do

it justice? How can we possibly do this thing faithfully while transferring it to the screen?”

This question has haunted every potential adaptation for over 30 years (efforts to adapt The Sandman for the screen have been happening in fits and starts since around 1991).

“Basically, it’s like a train, and you try to make sure each car on the train is part of the whole train,” Steele laughs. “You can kind of see where you’re going, and you know what's coming—you’ve already designed some of the big pieces like Hell or the Threshold of Desire, which is shaped like the inside of a heart,

and all these other things—after that, it just kind of evolved.”

Part of the problem (or challenge, if you’re feeling generous) is that every Sandman fan on the planet has an idea of what Gaiman’s world should look like and their own mental image of who and what the Endless are.

And the series’ production team was extremely well aware of that fact going into the project.

“We’re dealing with things that are so subjective now, right? It’s about dreams. It’s about Hell. Everyone has their vision of what that thing should be,” Markiewicz says. “And in some ways, we can never hope to achieve what that is.”

So the team went back to the beginning: Gaiman’s story itself. And not the 1989 comics either, but the author’s original text, which he put together before an artist had drawn a single panel.

“In terms of my prep, one of the things that Allan [Heinberg,

WE'VE INHERITED THIS AMAZING PIECE OF ARTWORK AND LITERATURE AND FANTASY. HOW CAN WE DO IT JUSTICE? — V F X S UP E RVI SO R, I A N M A RK IEWIC Z

showrunner of The Sandman] provided me with, which was gold, was the original comic book scripts from Neil Gaiman,” Markiewicz says.

“Not the comic books, not the drawn panels, but the scripts he wrote for the artists [where] he described what he was trying to get at.”

The result is that though there are certain moments in the series which look as though they’ve been lifted directly from the comic panels (because several “absolutely” have), The Sandman series manages to feel

like something altogether different.

“I thought that [starting with] Neil’s notes was the perfect way for us to think about adapting the show,” he continues. “Because sometimes the comic book panel is very comic book-y, and it has that wild, quirky, zany quality, which I don’t think the show has all of that much.”

The process of putting The Sandman together was a long one, as well.

“I think we had close to four months’ prep, and we needed all of it,” Steele says. “There’s just so much.

You want to build everything. But so much of it was just one step at a time and trying to figure out [what worked and what didn’t], and very quickly, we realized we had to be strategic with our time and resources and money. It was a lot of hard work.”

DWELLERS OF THE DREAMING

One of the things that Sandman fans will likely be excited to see come to

The Threshold of Desire is built to be shaped like the inside of a heart.

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PRODUCTION DESIGN AND VFX life onscreen is Dream’s raven sidekick Matthew. Once a human named Matthew Cable, he transforms and becomes an emissary of the Dreaming after his death. The raven is snarky, brave, and incredibly loyal, sticking by Dream’s side even when he insists he doesn’t need pesky things like help or friends.

“I’m really quite proud of Matthew, and I think the whole visual effects team is proud of Matthew,” Markiewicz says. “It is probably the most successful CG feathered bird that I’ve seen, on film or television, and that’s saying a lot. Because we had a photoreal aspiration for something that was known—the thing was either going to look like a real bird, or it wasn’t.”

In addition to looking like a real bird (albeit one that speaks in Patton Oswalt’s voice), Matthew also needed to be able to move, fly, vocalize, and interact with a variety of human onscreen partners. Furthermore, since Matthew was at one point a human being himself and is one of the few characters that Dream might actually call a friend, his bird form needed to be able to embody a range of almost human expressions and inspire viewers to feel real pathos for him.

The production filmed with multiple trained birds—the “most notorious” of which was known as Mr.

T on set—and the use of real animals provided “precious, critical material” for the VFX teams to work with.

“There’s a real joy in seeing Matthew,” Markiewicz says. “You do have to take a step back and realize the whimsy of the show—there are points where you realize, oh, we have a talking pumpkin head talking to a talking bird in this library,” Markiewicz says. “I hope that people really embrace the journey.”

A HOPE IN HELL

Though Markiewicz unsurprisingly names Matthew as his favorite character, both he and Steele point to one specific episode as the pinnacle

of their achievement in The Sandman’s first season.

“I think that my hope is that the ‘A Hope in Hell’ episode is one that does stand out,” Markiewicz admits. “It’s certainly the one we spent the most time on—trying to figure out how to problem solve it, how to make it happen.”

The Sandman’s fourth episode follows Dream on a journey into the realm of Lucifer Morningstar to retrieve the Helmet of Dreams, which has been stolen and traded away to a demon. His trek into the bowels of Hell itself required the series’ production team to create everything from desolate landscapes strewn with

Mervyn's stick-like neck is achieved via green screen.

Librarian Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) Matthew the Raven and Mervyn Pumkinhead.

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Morpheus enters the depths of Hell. Below left: a rendering of The Corinthian's eyeless face.

ash, lava, and bone to prison cells built into the side of a mountain and walls comprised of artfully arranged human bodies.

“It was our biggest challenge,” Steele says. “We fought to keep Hell.

There were so many conversations about which way to take it. But I have to admit, it was a ton of fun. Tons of sculptors and model makers and construction and paint. Things had to be built: for example, the gate is an actual giant piece of sculpture.

It’s amazing.” “‘I’m really proud of Lucifer’s palace,” Markiewicz adds. “That felt like an impossible nut to crack. I remember the first time that Gary and I were looking at that, and Gary said to me, ‘Do we not show it?’ Because anything that we show of Lucifer’s palace is going to be disappointing— no matter what it is, no matter how cool it is, whatever we show is going to be a little bit underwhelming.”

In the end, according to Markiewicz, Lucifer’s fantastical realm was largely based on real-life images.

“There’s a lot about Lucifer as

Lightbringer that we specifically tried to design based on Western Catholicism,” he explains. “I specifically modeled that piazza on the Vatican. [Visuals] tend to always feel more grounded and more real if we can start with something that is real. The look back on Lucifer’s palace from the demon’s view looking up—that’s one of the cathedrals in Milan. We loved the strong, striking, imposing component: the

foundations, the Gothic spires. We felt like Lucifer would totally use the same iconography.”

Markiewicz mentions multiple other inspirations for the look and feel of Lucifer’s kingdom, including Auguste Rodin’s famous Gates of Hell sculpture, the art of Hieronymus Bosch (The Garden of Earthly Delights), and the poetry of John Milton (Paradise Lost).

In a way, this melding of different styles of art and iconography is wildly fitting for an adaptation of Gaiman’s work, which is built on the fusion of so many genres, cultures, and tales.

“It was a really fun challenge to make sure that we always had all these references available. Not just of Sandman, but also all this surrounding mythology. You can’t help but be humbled by its level of sophistication—finding the root name of the word that is the character that refers back to the fable that it’s then based on. There’s always a story. That was why the graphic novel was so interesting to begin with.”

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PROPS AND COSTUMES

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL Property master Gordon Fitzgerald and costume designer Sarah Arthur delve into the intricacies of their work.

Dream (Tom Sturridge) wears his iconic helm in The Sandman.

T HE ART OF PROPS AND costumes can sometimes be an invisible one for viewers, only really noticeable when the team does something that feels wrong. The devil is in the detail— those small pieces that appear on the set, whether it’s a flagon appropriate to the 1600s or a vibrant costume that sets the tone of the scene.

When everything comes together to create the right atmosphere, the props and costumes feel seamless, an enhancement of the world. Den of Geek spoke to The Sandman costume designer Sarah Arthur and property master Gordon Fitzgerald to take a look behind the scenes at some of the primary props and costumes that viewers will notice when the comicbook adaptation hits their screens.

While their names might be unfamiliar, Arthur and Fitzgerald have both worked on high-profile projects. Arthur has served as costume designer on such projects as Sherlock and A Discovery of Witches.

Fitzgerald worked with The Sandman actor Gwendoline Christie as the property master on Game of Thrones, as well as on previous Neil Gaiman project Good Omens. “It’s been a lot of Gaiman for the last three years!”

Fitzgerald jokes…

:

» BY ALANA JOLI ABBOTT

T H E HELM As Sandman fans know, the first story in the graphic novels follows Dream, recently freed from imprisonment, as he works to regain his three items of office in order to restore him to his former power.

One of the most iconic of these is the Helmet of Dreams, which covers his full face. Typically, a piece like this would be the duty of the props department, but for The Sandman, because it’s important for Dream to wear it, the design and creation were handled by the costumers. “That was quite a challenge,” says Arthur.

The props and costumes teams worked together closely on the helmet because it “had to appear in a bag, kind of like an old-fashioned carpetbag,” Fitzgerald says. “We had to work with costume to make sure that what they had fit into the bag we were going to provide.” The solution? The helm was designed as a foldable piece. “It was about four feet long,” Fitzgerald notes, so if it hadn’t been able to fold, “the bag would be enormous!”

Arthur also notes that the team, at the behest of Allan Heinberg and Neil Gaiman, made every effort to stick close to the comics. She says that viewers will see some very close matches to the original art: “When Dream came down into Roderick’s house, we laid out the cloak like it was laid out in the comic. We did little things like that.”

Tom Sturridge, the actor playing Dream, has a number of costumes over the course of the season. “I loved Dream’s costumes because they were so varied,” says Arthur.

“His journey was vast. We went from early centuries through to modernday London, [as well as] the dream world. We had to alter things to accommodate those sets.” The sets’ importance in establishing both costumes and props is echoed by Fitzgerald: “The set design was so critical to the look of [the show].”

John Dee (David Thewlis) in possession of Dream’s ruby.

T H E SAND AND T H E R U BY Dream’s two other items of power are a bag of magical sand and a ruby, which, in his absence, has been manipulated by a human magician.

The ruby is Fitzgerald’s favorite among all the props the team created.

“It changed, and it glowed, and it did different things,” he says.

The ruby seen on screen is a combination of a physical prop and CGI. According to Fitzgerald, at the beginning of a project, the visual effects team presents the props department with a wishlist of items they’d like to see. Most of the items that the actors physically interact with have a physical component, which the visual effects crew will manipulate in post-production. The ruby, however, had its own special effects. In order to create illumination from the prop itself, Fitzgerald’s team worked with the electricians. “[The electrical department] helped us by making it glow in different ways,” he explains. “There was always a lot of magic going on behind the scenes just to make it do whatever it had to do.”

Rose Walker (Kyo Ra) meets Matthew the Raven.

M AT T H E W T H E R AVE N Sometimes a character is also a prop. One such character is Matthew the Raven, voiced by Patton Oswalt. Once a mortal human, Matthew has been transformed into a raven to be a servant of Dream. The fully mobile, very realistic-looking bird depicted on screen isn’t just a product of CGI, though—it’s a combination of a physical object and animation.

“We have a physical prop that we offer up,” Fitzgerald explains, “and then CGI and special effects are involved. So often, it’s something that the actor needs to interact with, and the visual effects will take it from what we have and create their world.” The result in the episodes is a seamless version of the character, a compellingly believable talking bird who comes through with aid just when Dream needs him most.

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PROPS AND COSTUMES

CHANGING TIM ES One of the greatest challenges of the series is that it spans such a long period, with later episodes featuring a time-lapse across seven centuries. While much of the series takes place in either modern-day or fantastical settings, like Dream’s kingdom and Hell, there are scenes that require research into different periods. Fitzgerald, who worked on Game of Thrones, says that shows in a single setting are “easier because you’re just doing one period.”

In episode six of The Sandman, the “tavern sequence” begins in the 1400s, with Dream and Hob Gadling —whose death has been forstalled

by Dream’s sister Death in an experiment about whether mortals would enjoy immortality—revisiting the same setting every hundred years. Each time, the sets had to be redressed, and the costumes and props brought up to period. “You’ve got to have your facts right,” says Arthur. “I kept getting confused between 1589 and 1689 because they’re sort of similar—but they’re not at all. So it was very important to do research.”

It’s not all about accuracy, though.

“You’re always trying to make it interesting, as well,” says Fitzgerald.

“So if you’ve got a scene from the 1700s, then you’ve got to give the actors in the background something to work with that makes the scene appealing, beyond addressing the period. There’s historical reference, but you end up making up things that you [hope will] work.”

Arthur notes that in some cases, historical references are slim. “When you go back hundreds of years, it’s not documented in pictures,” she says. In addition, the background cast in the tavern sequence are commoners rather than nobles, and there are far fewer references for people who weren’t wealthy (they couldn’t afford things like portraits).

“You have to read up on it,” she says.

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Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley) nurses a pint in a 20th-century pub.

Dream and Hob Gadling feature in episode six’s “tavern sequence,” which visits various time periods.

Dream (Tom Sturridge) with his sister, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste).

Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie plays the ruler of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar.

LUC I F E R : R UL E R AND WAR R IOR

THE TRICK IS TO MAKE IT APPEAR THAT ANY PROP IS SOMETHING THAT COULD BE FROM THE COMIC, BUT IT’S ACTUALLY SOMETHING THAT WE MAKE. — PR OPE R T Y M A S TER G O RDON F I T ZGE R A L D

In order for Dream to retrieve his helm from the demon who stole it, he must battle Lucifer in a contest of the mind that has a very physical, intense engagement between the two actors. When Dream is first greeted by Lucifer, the ruler of Hell wears bright white robes; then, as the battle between them begins, Lucifer suddenly dons black armor.

The striking contrast is an invention of the costume department and Gwendoline Christie, the actor who portrays Lucifer.

“I think it’s very, very important for actors to have their say [in the look and feel of their costumes]”, Arthur says. “A lot of actors build their characters through their costumes, so it’s a really important part of the process [to] sit down, talk, and come up with ideas.” The two contrasting-color costumes for Lucifer were created by Christie’s partner, fashion designer Giles

Deacon. “He’s an incredible costume designer,” says Arthur.

Lucifer’s costumes also include a vivid red robe, adding another contrast to Christie’s pale golden hair and the character’s matte black wings. Lucifer is intentionally designed to look androgynous, something that mimics the comics, and is one of several androgynous, non-binary, or gender fluid characters in the show.

To make sure that sense of gender came across in the visuals, “I did a lot of work on all the characters right at the beginning, before we started shooting,” Arthur says. “We looked at lots of androgynous characters from the past—people like David Bowie, for example, who in the ’70s did his own thing. It was massive, because we had to be very sensitive towards everything, but we had some amazing actors playing those parts.”

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PROPS AND COSTUMES OF THE SANDMAN

Asim Chaudhry as Abel and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain.

STICK ING TO THE SOURCE Although comic-book physics don’t always translate well to the real world, it was vital to the whole team to be able to honor the source material. “We tried to stick with the comic as much as possible,” Arthur explains. She notes that for the character of Lucienne, the head librarian of Dream’s Castle who is played by Vivienne Acheampong in the series, “we mimicked the costumes, the glasses,” and kept the look as close to the comic as possible, even though the character has been gender-swapped. Among her favorites are the costumes for Cain and Abel, also closely drawn from the comic: “The first costumes you see are quite scruffy, but further along, they’re much smarter.”

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Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), the chief librarian of Dream’s Castle.

Fitzgerald also addresses the importance of staying close to the source material. “The trick is to make it appear that [any prop] is something that could be from the comic,” Fitzgerald explains. The show is “for the fans of Sandman,”

he continues. “If the episodes do justice to that, then that would be a great achievement. The set design, the costume design, and then all the smaller elements contribute. So if the fans are happy at the end, then hopefully we’ve done a good job.”

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