DC Brings ‘Sandman’ TV Series To Netflix

If you've been waiting for Sandman to finally come to the screen, this is your moment.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neil Gaiman's legendary characters will be getting a TV series on Netflix.  The report goes on to say that this will be the most expensive Warner Bros. TV series to date.  The series was also reportedly shopped to several networks, including HBO, before being taken in by Netflix.

Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman) is set to write and serve as showrunner on the straight-to-series drama. Gaiman himself will executive produce alongside David Goyer (Krypton). There have been many failed attempts to bring this story to the big screen with New Line.  This has been an almost 20 year journey, so you can see why fans thought that it may never happen.  Speaking of which, Warner Bros. and Netflix have yet to formally comment on the series and have made no formal announcement.  So if you're in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp, I certainly can't blame you there.

This is a bit of good news, in what has been a tough news cycle for Vertigo lately.  The imprint was just dissolved by DC recently, leaving fans to wonder what would happen with these unique stories.  Word is that the recently launched Sandman Universe line of stories will continue in some capacity.  If I were to venture a guess, I would say that some of those stories would get moved to DC's Black Label which houses their more mature titles.  Gaiman's recent success with TV adaptations of American Gods (Starz) and Good Omens (Amazon Prime Video), do give me hope that this can succeed as well.  The only worry that I have is the financial one.  If you've read Sandman, there will definitely be some heavy visuals that will need to be dealt with.  This is also a very complex story with a lot going on.  To bring new eyes to this series, there will have to be some consideration given to make things easy to pick up and then follow.  I know that makes comic book fans scream, but it's vital to the success of almost any adaptation.  Given the hefty price tag, and Netflix's recent reputation of cancelling series more quickly, you have to think that there will need to be a lot of binge watching to keep this one around.

Since things are still in the very early stages, it's hard to speculate on anything.  We haven't even been given an episode order yet or any news on casting.  We also know zip about the story, and it's no given where this series could actually begin if you look what has already been published.  For now we are in wait and see mode, which is something we should be used to with this title.

If this does end up happening, which Sandman story would you like to see find it's way to Netflix?

Photo Credit: DC Entertainment