After long last, the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s iconic comic book series, The Sandman, has hit our screens.
Fans of The Sandman are equally frantically excited and utterly terrified to watch the new Netflix series, with opposing expectations pinned on the hope that the show is a compelling watch. Thankfully, The Sandman has met our expectations, showing a gothic world of danger and decay where Dream, the personification of dreams, sets out to right the wrongs of his wrongful imprisonment.
With an all-star cast that includes the likes of Boyd Holbrook, Jenna Coleman, Gwendoline Christie, David Thewlis, Patton Oswalt and Tom Sturridge in the leading role, the casting process wasn’t as seamless as the final show might suggest.
This was particularly the case to Sturridge who had to go through several auditions to gain his role in the show. “The audition process was extraordinarily long,” he explains to What To Watch, adding, “It began in February 2020 and was a relatively traditional. I did two or three auditions. I then had to get on a plane and do a screen test, and then the world changed, which obviously had an impact on everyone in a far more important way than our casting process”.
Going through rigorous testing from the Netflix casting team, Sturridge adds, “The final stage was what I could only describe as a Sandman Oxford interview. It was me on a Zoom call with twelve different people all asking questions that one is never asked in an audition process as an actor — quite a deep, philosophical interrogation into my position on the character and the story and the ambition for the series.
Continuing, he concludes, “After this quite haunting and terrifying hour and a half of my life, I got a phone call from Allan Heinberg telling me I’d got the part. It was an astonishing moment”.
Take a look at the trailer for the brand new Sandman series, below, and give the show a watch on Netflix – it’s well worth it.
