Everything We Know About Netflix & Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’

Massive news for fans of comics and Neil Gaiman dropped over the weekend: Netflix is nearing a huge deal with Warner Bros. TV to adapt the author’s beloved DC Vertigo series “Sandman” into a big-budget TV series. As reported by THR, none of the parties involved would officially confirm the story, but plenty of details are still available.

Gaiman and David S. Goyer – co-writer of “The Dark Knight” and “Man of Steel” – will produce the series, with “Wonder Woman” writer Allan Heinberg serving as showrunner. THR’s sources note that the project will be DC Entertainment’s most expensive project to date. As nothing is official at this stage, it is unclear who may star in the series, when it will premiere, and how many episodes it may consist of to start.

Gaiman’s celebrated series initially ran for 75 issues between 1989 and 1996, following the journeys of Morpheus, the King of Dreams, one of the seven Endless: Dream, Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and Destruction. The series has seen numerous failed attempts at adaptation over the decades since its release. Early attempts to produce a film struggled to translate the series’ distinctly mythic tone and the breadth of its epic story.

Most recently, a film was in the works at New Line Cinema with Joseph Gordon-Levitt attached to produce, direct, and potentially star in. The project languished, and Gordon-Levitt eventually departed in 2016, leaving the production to fizzle out. Both Gaiman and Goyer were also attached to that failed film adaptation.

“Sandman” would join a number of other major series in the works at Netflix as streaming platforms jockey for the next big blockbuster series to rival “Game of Thrones.” These other big-budget productions include “The Witcher,” “Magic: The Gathering,” “Cowboy Bebop,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” and various projects based on “The Chronicles of Narnia.”