Home Comics & Toys James McAvoy as Morpheus leads star-studded cast of The Sandman audio adaptation

James McAvoy as Morpheus leads star-studded cast of The Sandman audio adaptation

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For what feels like an eternity now, Hollywood has been trying to adapt Sandman to the screen. Neil Gaiman’s trailblazing high-fantasy graphic novel, with its huge cast and genre-defying storytelling that stretched over seven years and 75 individual comic book issues, would always be a monumental task to adapt as a movie. So luckily Hollywood has stopped trying to do that, as Netflix has instead taken the far more sensible route of adapting it as a big-budget TV series. But as we’ve now learned though, that’s not the only adaptation on the cards for The Sandman, and this new production is boasting some serious talent behind it!

Gaiman himself made the announcement on Twitter yesterday, revealing that The Sandman is being adapted/directed by frequent collaborator Dirk Maggs as an audio series for Amazon’s Audible. The big news though is just who will be voicing the cast. James McAvoy is leading the production to play the titular Morpheus, the anthropomorphic personification of dreams, and joining him will be Riz Ahmed as The Corinthian, Kat Dennings as Death, Samantha Morton as Urania Blackwell, Justin Vivian Bond as Desire, Arthur Darvill as William Shakespeare, Taron Egerton as John Constantine, William Hope as Doctor Destiny, Josie Lawrence as Mad Hettie, Miriam Margolyes as Despair, Bebe Neuwirth as The Siamese Cat, Andy Serkis as Matthew the Raven, Michael Sheen as Lucifer, and much more.

That is an utterly insane cast, and I cannot wait to hear how some of them interpret their iconic characters. I’m especially excited for Taron Egerton as John Constantine (Yes, that John Constantine as The Sandman was published under DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint), Kat Dennings as Death, and Michael Sheen as Lucifer. No, this Lucifer definitely does not solve murders with the police every week.

Along with the characters, Gaiman himself will be narrating the story and he’ll be accompanied by an original musical score composed by BAFTA-winner James Hannigan. While Hannigan has done acclaimed work in TV and movies (Primeval, Lost in Space), he has a massively storied career composing music for video game franchises like Command & Conquer, Dead Space, Wing Commander, FIFA, Saints Row and more.

This first instalment of the audio series will be adapting the first three volumes of the graphic novels – Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Dream Country – which tell some pretty varied and wild stories. Here’s the official synopsis from Audible:

When The Sandman (James McAvoy), also known as Lord Morpheus—the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination—is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence. As the multi-threaded story unspools, The Sandman descends into Hell to confront Lucifer (Michael Sheen), chases rogue nightmares who have escaped his realm, and crosses paths with an array of characters from DC comic books, ancient myths, and real-world history, including: Inmates of Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum, Doctor Destiny, the muse Calliope, the three Fates, William Shakespeare (Arthur Darvill), and many more.

The Sandman is scheduled for release on 15 July 2020, but is available for pre-order now on Audible for $28.13.

Last Updated: May 14, 2020

2 Comments

  1. Holy shitballs!

    Reply

    • BradeLunner

      May 14, 2020 at 15:39

      Yea that about sums it up! Netflix is gonna struggle to get a cast this good

      Reply

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