The Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg has said they want to adapt the entirety of the comic book series in future seasons.
The Netflix series, starring Tom Sturridge as lead character Morpheus, is based on the series of comic books by Neil Gaiman. Originally released in 1989, the main series went onto span 75 issues in total over seven years.
Speaking to NME at the show’s premiere in London, Heinberg said they’re hoping to adapt the entirety of Gaiman’s books if the show is renewed for future seasons.
Asked how many seasons they’ve got planned, Heinberg said: “We’ve got as many as they’ll let us have. If enough viewers show up, we can go for quite a long while. We want to do all of it, we want a spin-off miniseries. We’d love to make it for as long as they’ll have us.”
The 10-episode first season covers 400 pages of Gaiman’s books from 3,000 in total, according to Heinberg. Despite the source material’s ambitious subject matter, blending mythology and history with trippy visuals, the show apparently didn’t make many sacrifices in the transition from the page.
“All of the stuff I was most afraid of we figured out a way to do,” Heinberg said. “There were moments early on where I was like, I have no idea how we’re going to do this on camera, and we figured them all out.
“We only started with the first 400 [pages] this season, so we cut it down quite a bit. But we hope to get to all of them.”
Like any fantasy show in recent memory, The Sandman has been touted as Netflix’s answer to Game Of Thrones – although Gaiman believes this show offers something more varied and surprising.
“I think what makes it stand out is it isn’t all the same,” Gaiman told NME. “I love Game Of Thrones but if you take a slice of Game Of Thrones and you like it, the rest of Game Of Thrones is going to be a lot like that. There will be dragons, there will be fighting, there will be betrayals and there will be boobs, and that’s what you’ve got for the rest of the thing.
“For The Sandman, we have ten episodes. Not one of these ten episodes is anything like any of the other ten episodes. We’re going to take you into the dream land, we’re going to take you to hell, we’re going to take you to a serial killer’s convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
“We’re going to take you all over the world and there’s going to be episodes that are really dark, and episodes that are really light.”
The Sandman follows Morpheus, the king of dreams and one of the seven Endless, who after being held captive for 106 years, escapes and sets out to restore his kingdom of the Dreaming.
Along with Sturridge, the show’s cast includes Gwendoline Christie, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Vivienne Acheampong, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jenna Coleman, David Thewlis and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
The Sandman is released on Netflix on August 5, 2022.
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