Following yesterday's extended clips, IGN has debuted some new stills from Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman, giving us a look at Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) in The Dreaming, Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) in Hell, and another glimpse of that fan-favorite scene between Dream and Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) from "The Sound of her Wings."
While speaking to IGN, Neil Gaiman explained why they ultimately decided to cast a British actress as Death when he'd always envisioned the character with an American accent.
“There were actresses of every possible ethnicity,” the writer recalls. “Amazing actresses. Incredibly beautiful, incredibly brilliant, fabulous actresses. And their audition included talking about Mary Poppins and telling Dream that he was the most pathetic excuse for an anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane.”
“They had to be delivered with certainty. You had to know that this person really was Dream's big sister, who he would listen to," Gaiman continued. "And when we saw Kirby's audition, that for me was really the first time that I saw those lines delivered in a way that I believed. And I was surprised, because I had imagined that we'd have at least an American, or an American accent, on our Death. Was not expecting a British Death. And then when I saw what Kirby had given us, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I want. This is magic.’"
Howell-Baptiste's casting resulted in some backlash (no surprise there), and while there will always be a certain type of fan that refuses to accept her in the role, many seem to have been won over by seeing the former The Good Place star bring the character to life in the small amount of footage that's been released.
Check out the new images below (which also include our first low-res look at Nada and Kai'ckul) along with a BTS featurette, and let us know what you think.
"There is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep — a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies. But when Dream is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for a century, his absence sets off a series of events that will change both the dreaming and waking worlds forever. To restore order, Dream must journey across different worlds and timelines to mend the mistakes he’s made during his vast existence, revisiting old friends and foes, and meeting new entities — both cosmic and human — along the way."
The Sandman also stars Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, Charles Dance as black magician Roderick Burgess, and Sanjeeve Bhaskar as Cain. Joely Richardson will play Ethel Cripps, while David Thewlis will take on the role of her son John Dee, aka the deranged Dr. Destiny.
The 10-episode first season of The Sandman will adapt the first two arcs of the Vertigo comics series, "Preludes and Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House."