Trivia / The Sandman (2022)

---

• All-Star Cast: The cast features a range of recognizable names, such as Gwendoline Christie, Stephen Fry, Jenna Coleman, Boyd Holbrook, David Thewlis, Charles Dance, Arthur Darvill, and Derek Jacobi, with Patton Oswalt, Mark Hamill, Sandra Oh, David Tennant, Georgia Moffett, Neil Gaiman, and James McAvoy as voice actors.
• Approval of God: According to Neil Gaiman, he spoke to some of the creators of Constantine, and they approved of the decision to rewrite him as Johanna Constantine.
• California Doubling: Production of the first season was based in London and overlapped with restrictions on international travel due to Covid, so the bulk of the location filming was done in London and the south of England. The Newcastle nightclub Johanna visits in episode 3 is actually in London, as is the street in Buffalo where John finds himself after stepping outside at the end of episode 3/beginning of episode 4. The scenes in Florida are actually in exotic Poole, Dorset, although Hal's B&B is in Surrey. When the action moves to Georgia for the Cereal Convention it's actually back to London; the convention hotel is the Skyline Hotel at London Heathrow Airport.
• The Cast Showoff: It would have been remiss to cast Hal with John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig herself), and not have him do a drag performance or three — notably, we never see Hal perform in the comics (though the character was in a drag show).
• Creator Cameo: The Skull Bird/Crow in A Dream of a Thousand Cats is voiced by Neil Gaiman himself.
• Dear Negative Reader: Neil Gaiman got a bit miffed when "fans" on Twitter questioned various casting choices, particularly Death and Desire.
  Neil Gaiman: I give all the fucks about the work. I spent 30 years successfully battling bad movies of Sandman. I give zero fucks about people who don't understand/haven't read Sandman whining about a non-binary Desire or that Death isn't white enough. Watch the show, make up your minds.
• Fake American: Due to being filmed in the UK, most of the actors playing Americans are actually British, most notably Vanesu Samunayi and Eddie Karanja as Rose and Jed. The most notable exceptions are Boyd Holbrook, Patton Oswalt and John Cameron Mitchell.
• Irony As He Is Cast: Stephen Fry plays Gilbert, who models himself on G. K. Chesterton. Chesterton was a famous Catholic apologist, Fry is Jewish and an outspoken atheist.
• Playing Against Type: Arthur Darvill, generally known for playing heroic, upstanding characters like Rory Williams, Rip Hunter, and Reverend Paul, here plays weak-willed rapist Richard Madoc.
• Promoted Fanboy: Some of the cast members are fans of the comic, particularly Patton Oswalt and Tom Sturridge. Mason Alexander Park landed the role of Desire because they are a longtime fan of Gaiman's work (although not Sandman particularly, but they were aware of Desire's existence and status as an example of a genderfluid or nonbinary individual in media at all). They decided to tweet him asking whether Desire would make an appearance in the series. Gaiman said yes, and sent them the contact information of the casting director.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Mason Alexander Park, who plays the nonbinary Desire, is also nonbinary.
  • John Cameron Mitchell, who plays Hal Carter, is gay like his character. Additionally, he came out as nonbinary in 2022, and uses he/him pronouns.
• Role Reprise: Gwendoline Christie had previously played Lucifer in a 2010 stage production of Doctor Faustus.
• Saved from Development Hell: Oh yes. Attempts to adapt the comics into a film have been notoriously difficult. Neil Gaiman approved of almost every initial pitch during each iteration, but much of it was butchered by Executive Meddling. Roger Avary wrote a draft. Gaiman loved it. But, producer Jon Peters demanded a more superheroic tone and a giant spider fight (which was a thing of his, as Kevin Smith could tell you), leading to a script that Gaiman hated. Joseph Gordon-Levitt got involved with a new attempt. Gaiman also approved. But the studio saw how much bank the Marvel Cinematic Universe was pulling in, history repeated, and Levitt jumped ship. Then, years later an audio drama based on the comics was produced, paving the way for The Sandman to finally come to live action via Netflix, with Gaiman now having enough leverage to demand a greater amount of control.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: John Constantine appears in the third issue of the comic series, but Netflix was unable to use him in this version of the story because J.J. Abrams is developing his own show based on the character for HBO Max. Netflix worked around this by creating a modern day version of Johanna Constantine (though her/John's ancestor, Lady Johanna Constantine, still appears).
• Self-Adaptation: Neil Gaiman developed the series and is an executive producer.
• Technology Marches On:
  • In the 1989 comic issue "24 Hours", Judy kept walking to the pay-phone to call people about Donna, and when she wasn't she sat down trying to write an letter of apology to her. In the 2022 episode, "24/7", she is facetiming people and unsuccessfully trying to text Donna.
  • In the comic issue "Collectors" Philip Sitz' wrote a self-published Serial Killer fanzine, Chaste; in the series it's been updated to a true crime blog.
• What Could Have Been: Alex Burgess' punishment of 'eternal waking' (constantly 'waking up' into worse and worse nightmares while never managing to truly wake) was shot and edited, but it just didn't fit into the final version of the episode; test audiences just wanted to know what Dream did next.
• Word of God: While it may not seem like it, the events of The Sandman: Overture definitely happened. (Look closely at the state of Dream's attire when Burgess summons him vs when he first confronts the Corinthian.)

---