Neil Gaiman’s fantasy drama The Sandman’s first season premiered on Netflix in August 2022. The series received a great response from viewers and garnered almost 350 million hours of watch time just within a month of site release. Even after the great response from viewers, it took almost four months for Netflix to renew it for a second season. Deadline confirmed the news earlier this month after rumors regarding a second season started surfacing on social media.
Although the show has a huge following and people are excited about another season, it still gets plenty of criticism. However, the creator of the show claims he does not pay much attention to The Sandman’s haters. He claims that people start hating a character without proper knowledge. In his recent interview with Inverse, Gaiman responded to the backlash surrounding the show’s casting.
Neil Gaiman Claims Kirby Howell-Baptise is Perfect to Portray Death
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman follows Morpheus, the ruler of the Dreaming, who seeks to restore his kingdom following a 70-year imprisonment. The series stars Tom Sturridge in the lead role of Morpheus. However, since the beginning, there have been complaints regarding the casting of The Sandman.
Along with the lead, the show’s supporting casting has also sparked many complaints. Neil Gaiman who is the writer of the comic book, The Sandman and the creator of the show addressed these complaints.
Talking to Inverse, the English author said there is nothing controversial about the show. He claimed that people who are upset are not The Sandman fans. Gaiman emphasizes it by saying that when these people are asked if they have read The Sandman, their answer is no.
“And then we’d go ‘Have you read the comics?’ And they’d go ‘No.’ And we’d go,” he said. The Sandman creator also mentioned that Kirby Howell-Baptise playing Death was not controversial for fans. Because Sandman fans know what these characters are supposed to look like.
“So the people that were getting all upset that this, when you talked to them, they weren’t Sandman fans,” Neil Gaiman said. Kirby Howell-Baptise is not the first and the only controversial cast member. There are complaints about other characters and their representation as well. And the creator of the show has no issue addressing these complaints.
Neil Gaiman Addressed The Most Controversial Castings of The Sandman
During the interview, Neil Gaiman was asked what was the most controversial thing for him. The series has been highly criticized for its casting and Gaiman finally talked about it. The Good Omens author mentioned the three most controversial castings of the series.
These included Kirby Howell-Baptise as Death, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, and Jenna Coleman as Lady Johanna Constantine.
He claimed that all these characters are as they were in comics. The Stardust author also talked bout Lucifer and Lady Johanna Constantine’s casting. Addressing the gender swap complaints the author said that Lucifer in comics looks kind of like an androgynous David Bowie.
“(Lucifer) doesn’t have any genitalia because they’re an angel,” he said. The Coraline author also said that he did not cast Lucifer star Tom Ellis in the role because he wanted people to be scared of the fallen angel.
Talking about Lady Johanna Constantine’s character, Gaiman said that she was introduced in Sandman No. 13 in 1989. He also mentioned that fans are aware of the fact and they do not seem to have an issue with this.
Even after all the backlash and controversies, The Sandman became one of the hits on Netflix. Neil Gaiman is confident about the next season as well.
He said that even after all these complaints The Sandman went to be the number one show for four weeks. Netflix renewed the fantasy drama for another season earlier this month. The first season of The Sandman is available to stream on Netflix.
The release date for The Sandman Season 2 is not revealed yet.
Source: Inverse
