Neil Gaiman Talks The ‘Genre-Hopping’ of Netflix’s Sandman

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was such a unique peace of fantasy that an adaptation would spend years in development hell, but now a series is moving forward over at Netflix. With the original comics just jumping from one setting to another, Gaiman talks about how the series also likes to switch genres between episodes.

Talking to Empire, Gaiman explains:

“You watch Episode 1 and think, ‘Oh, I get this thing: it’s like Downton Abbey, but with magic,’… Then you’ll be wondering, ‘What the hell is this?’ by Episode 2, when you’re meeting Gregory The Gargoyle in The Dreaming. Episode 5 is about as dark and traumatic as anything is ever gonna get, then you’ve got Episode 6, which is probably the most feel-good of all the episodes.”

Source: Empire, Netflix

If anything, Sandman has always been a semi-anthology series full of recurring characters, and Gaiman says that could be the source of this show’s appeal. He continues:

“If you didn’t like an episode of Game Of Thrones, you probably won’t like any other episode of Game Of Thrones… With Sandman, it’s all about surprising you. It’s all about reinventing itself. It’s all about taking you on a journey you’ve not been on before.”

While I personally would have wanted a different actor/actress to play an iteration of the Endless in each episode, I’m excited to see what Gaiman is teasing for the upcoming Netflix show. Admittedly the recent “Gaiman-renaissance” has started to lose its steam, but the train could pretty much pick back up when Sandman releases.

No specific release date has been set for Sandman, but you can catch it on Netflix sometime later this year.