Following quickly on from our first look at actor Tom Sturridge as main character Dream in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation ofThe Sandman, co-star Kirby Howell-Baptiste has now been spotted on set as one of the stories other crucial characters: Death. Much like the quick glimpse of Dream, our first sight of Death is not a particularly action-packed one, but it does appear to show a familiar scene being filmed.
The image featuresKirby Howell-Baptistein an all-black costume typical of Death’s outfits in the source comics by Neil Gaiman, with Sturridge also visible in the background. The scene in question is likely from the issue entitled “The Sound of Her Wings” which is the readers introduction to Death, who provides her brother with some much-needed perspective after he begins brooding (he does a lot of that) upon completion an important quest.
The casting of Howell-Baptiste has drawn some criticism from fans ofThe Sandman, with some disappointed that the live action iteration of the character will not have the pale skin of her comic book counterpart. Gaiman, though hassince responded to these complaintshead-on saying,
“I give all the f–ks about the work. I spent 30 years successfully battling bad movies of Sandman. I give zero f–ks 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.”
Not quite finished, the author and creator continued, again advising that fans watch the show, and ideally read the comic, before passing judgement. “Well, yes. But you’d have to have read the comics to know that. And the shouty people appear to have skipped that step,” he said in response to people complaining about the character Desire being non-binary.
Netflix’sThe Sandmanseries will bebased on the critically acclaimed comic book seriesby author Neil Gaiman.The Sandmanoriginally ran for 75 issues from 1989-1996, and follows the main character Dream, also known as Morpheus (among other names), a conceptual entity struggling with his place in the universe. He is one of the seven Endless, with the other Endless being Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, formerly Delight, and Destruction.The Sandmanis a story about the power of stories and how they can evolve, and how Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, is captured and subsequently learns that change is often inevitable.
The series hasamassed a stellar cast, including Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) as Lucifer, Ruler of Hell, Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) as Lucienne, chief librarian and trusted guardian of Dream’s realm, Boyd Holbrook (Logan) as The Corinthian, an escaped nightmare, Charles Dance (Gosford Park,Game of Thrones) as Roderick Burgess, Charlatan, blackmailer and magician, Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing) as Abel and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday) as Cain, the first victim and the first predator, residents and loyal subjects of the Dream Realm.
Neil Gaiman is on board as an executive producer and co-writer on the adaptation, with the series being produced by Warner Bros. Television. David S. Goyer will also serve as an executive producer, withWonder Womanwriter Allan Heinberg penning the series alongside Gaiman.
