Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman premiered its first season in August 2022. The series brought the comic book series by writer Neil Gaiman and a number of artists to the screen in a faithful retelling. In many instances, it brought the comic book panels to life. We spent time with Morpheus and Dream, but we barely got to know the whimsical and fantastical world of the Endless. However, it’s time for more stories. Last November, Netflix confirmed The Sandman is a go for more. Fans of the Endless rejoice. Especially because Netflix has just revealed the three new cast members who will round out the rest of Morpheus’ family: Delirium, the Prodigal, and their oldest sibling, Destiny.

The Sandman Announces It’s Delirium, Destruction, and Destiny, Shares Season 2 Teaser Trailer

The Endless are now complete. The Sandman season two has revealed new cast for its upcoming episodes. Hannah‘s Esmé Creed-Miles (she/her) is joining as fan-favorite Delirium. Revenge‘s Barry Sloane (he/him) has signed on as Destruction, also known as The Prodigal. (If you aren’t familiar with Gaiman’s comic books that moniker is a big hint at his role in the story.) And Primary Colors‘ Adrian Lester (he/him) will fill the role of the eldest Endless, Destiny.

In addition to this casting news, The Sandman season two has also revealed its first teaser trailer. Check it out below.

The Sandman Season 2 Shares New Look at Dream and Desire

Netflix celebrated The Sandman‘s 35th anniversary by announcing more episodes of its hit series were officially in production. And if that weren’t enough, the streamer actually gave us a behind-the-scenes look at Tom Sturridge (he/him, Dream) and Mason Alexander Park (they/them, Desire) in action. We certainly feel excited by this brief new glimpse of the show.

Additionally, Neil Gaiman penned a letter to fans celebrating The Sandman‘s journey and evolution. The letter can be read in full here, but in it, Gaiman notes of the Netflix series:

This week we officially restart production on the next sequence of stories of The Sandman for Netflix. Genius show runner Allan Heinberg and the countless people in front of and behind the camera are building something endlessly special, and bringing these stories to life in a way that would once have been unimaginable.

A journey is beginning that will take us from Destiny’s garden to Hell, from the Heart of the Dreaming to Ancient Greece and revolutionary France, and from there to places even I cannot quite imagine on the screen. I will be patient. Good things are coming.

The Sandman Teases New Episodes

To celebrate the new episodes of The Sandman, Netflix even released a short teaser featuring Morpheus’ helm. And we got a logo, “The dream continues.” We love it. A release from Netflix also shares that the show will return with even more new “episodes and stories to be adapted from multiple The Sandman graphic novels.” For now, though, we have not received confirmation on episode count and story details. We will, however, get The Sandman profile icons.

More new episodes of The Sandman were not guaranteed at any point, even with the show’s success. In a since-deleted tweet, Gaiman noted the show “is really expensive” and that for Netflix to order another season, The Sandman had to “perform incredibly well.” Given that how Netflix measures success is not entirely transparent, we’re not positive what kind of metrics led to this continuation. But we’re glad to see that they have.

More About the The Sandman‘s Next Chapter

Offering us more information about this new, next chapter of The Sandman, Gaiman notes in a release:

Millions upon millions of people have welcomed and watched and loved The Sandman on Netflix, from established Sandman fans to people who were simply curious, and then became obsessed with the Lord of Dreams, his family and their goings-on. It gives me unbelievable pleasure to say that, working with Netflix and Warner Bros., Allan Heinberg, David Goyer and I will be bringing even more of The Sandman stories to life. There are some astonishing stories waiting for Morpheus and the rest of them (not to mention more members of the Endless Family to meet). Nobody is going to be happier about this than the Sandman cast and crew: they are the biggest Sandman fans there are. And now it’s time to get back to work. There’s a family meal ahead, after all. And Lucifer is waiting for Morpheus to return to Hell…

What we do know is that we’re looking forward to seeing more of the Endless. Season one of The Sandman brought a story that showed us why adaptations exist. It brought in a moving deep cut from the Hellblazer comics. And it even wrapped up with a surprise bonus episode. The original Sandman comics series includes ran for 75 issues. So, the series has plenty of material to pull from. The show has plenty more rich, sometimes twisted characters to introduce and explore.

As for when the release date for the new episodes of The Sandman will be, it’s likely going to take a moment.

Originally published on November 3, 2022.

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Even ghosts need a day job. That’s where we find the pair of British boy spirits at the heart of Netflix’s new series, Dead Boy Detectives. Comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner in the pages of The Sandman, the duo eventually appeared in several DC and Vertigo titles before headlining their own 12-issue series plus a number of other short spurts. The streaming giant recently shared the first trailer for Dead Boy Detectives, which finds ghost gumshoes Charles and Edwin up against loads of supernatural problems, and death itself. And now, we even know when the series will arrive.

Dead Boy Detectives Full Trailer

Weeks ahead of the show’s debut, Netflix released the full trailer of the series. The Sandman spinoff takes place in the same universe, which is why Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death of the Endless pops up. The two supernatural P.I.s need to continue avoiding her if they want to stay on the job. But she’s not the only one looking for them.

Dead Boy Detectives Teaser Trailer and Images

Steve Yockey, creator of Max’s The Flight Attendant, developed Dead Boy Detectives for Max originally. Given that streaming service’s rampant offloading, we’re lucky Netflix decided to pick it up. This also means this series can officially exist within Netflix’s Sandman universe. Good news for you, Gaimanites out there. The two dead boys had previously appeared on Doom Patrol, but those were different versions of the characters and won’t related to this show.

Netflix recently revealed that Dead Boy Detectives will release on April 25, sharing the news alongside a slew of new images from the series.

Click To View Gallery

Dead Boy Detectives‘ Synopsis

The official synopsis for the Dead Boy Detectives series is as follows:

Do you have a pesky ghost haunting you? Has a demon stolen your core memories? You may want to ring the Dead Boy Detectives. Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), “the brains” and “the brawn” behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.

What Is the Release Date for Dead Boy Detectives?

As mentioned, Netflix has officially revealed that the Dead Boy Detectives series will release on April 25. The trailer looks fun, and so we’re hoping that translates to the full series.

Originally published on November 11, 2023.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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In the world of The Sandman existence does not end with death. It doesn’t even end with Death. The end of life is just the beginning of something new. For some that means suffering in Hell, but for two young men it means getting to work back on Earth, specifically at Netflix. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman spinoff comic series is also getting an adaptation from the streaming site, and the first full trailer for Dead Boy Detectives shows that sometimes the best people to investigate a murder are fellow ghosts.

But being dead doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to worry about. The afterlife comes with dangers worse than dying.

What’s a murder victim hoping for closure to do when no one alive wants to solve your case? Find someone who isn’t alive to investigate. That’s the premise behind Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Dead Boy Detectives series. The Sandman spinoff takes place in the same universe, which is why Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death of the Endless pops up. The two supernatural P.I.s need to continue avoiding her if they want to stay on the job. But she’s not the only one looking for them. Here’s the show’s official synopsis:

Edwin and Charles are best friends, ghosts… and the best detectives on the Mortal plane. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal and her friend Niko, they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.

The series stars George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri, Kassius Nelson, and Yuyu Kitamura. (The show is not connected to the version of the characters seen on Doom Patrol.) Dead Boy Detectives will get to work when the show debuts at Netflix on April 25. Assuming something worse than death or Death stops them from investigating before then.

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Some Good Omens fans only wanted one thing from season two of the Prime Video series. They wanted Aziraphale and Crowley to recognize something that seemed so obvious to them: they don’t just act like an old married couple, they are truly in love with one another. But did Earth’s best angel and demon come to that conclusion in season two? And did Crowley and Aziraphale finally kiss like so many have been eager to see them do since the inception of Good Omens? Or did their relationship continue to be one of friendship rather than romance? We finally got an answer during Good Omens second season finale.

Did Crowley and Aziraphale Kiss During Good Omens Season Two?

Good Omens‘ shippers finally got what they wanted in season two’s last episode when Crowley professed his love for Aziraphale and kissed him. It was a moment foreshadowed throughout the season by Nina and Maggie, the two characters who made that moment possible. But the long road to that kiss did not take the angel and demon to the same place. Although Crowley and Aziraphale did kiss, they didn’t exactly get together at the end of Good Omens season two… at least not yet.

How Did Nina and Maggie Make Crowley Realize He’s in Love With Aziraphale?

Maggie and Nina instantly recognized what Crowley and Aziraphale seemingly couldn’t on their own, which is that they were a couple in every way. No matter how many times the two local shopkeepers pointed that out to Crowley, he brushed them aside. Then they forced the issue in the finale.

With Heaven and Hell’s leaders no longer on Earth, the two women went back to the book shop to tell the angel and demon what they needed to hear. Only Crowley was there when they arrived, so they laid out some obvious truths about Crowley and “his partner.”

They explained the two need each other. Crowley is “the hard bitten one who can’t trust anyone ever again” while Aziraphale “is the soft one who still believes in magic and people being basically good and all that.” Only Crowley and Aziraphale won’t acknowledge what they both know to be true and get together because they “don’t ever talk to each other.”

Saying what they were “really thinking” about one another was what Maggie and Nina needed to do. And it was what Crowley and Aziraphale finally needed to do as well. That push was exactly what Crowley needed to finally acknowledge his own feelings, the same feelings Aziraphale obviously shared. Only, that conversation came at a very bad time.

Why Didn’t Crowley Join Aziraphale In Heaven?

While Crowley was waiting to profess his love, Aziraphale was busy accepting a new job. The Metatron offered Aziraphale Gabriel’s former position as the Heavenly host. That role came with a big perk. Aziraphale could restore Crowley to his full angelic status so he could serve as Aziraphale’s second in command.

Before Crowley could share his feelings, Aziraphale told him everything the Metatron said. Crowley then flew off the handle when he learned Aziraphale was returning to Heaven. “We’re better than that,” he said. “You’re better than that, angel. You don’t need them.” But Aziraphale still believes people are basically good, including angels. He thinks with them in charge, they can help the “good” side live up to its potential.

Crowley thinks Heaven will ultimately destroy Earth same as Hell, so he made one last plea to Aziraphale that laid out exactly how he feels and what he wants for both of them. It’s an emotional, heartfelt monologue Good Omens shippers wanted to hear, too, one that lays bare their entire relationship:

We’ve known each other a long time. We’ve been on this planet for a long time. I mean you and mean. I could always rely on you. You could always rely on me. We’re a team. A group…a group of the two of us. And we’ve spent our existence pretending that we aren’t. I mean, the last few years…not really. And I would like to spend…I mean, if Gabriel and Beelzebub can do it, go off together, than we can. Just the two of us. We don’t need Heaven, we don’t need Hell. They’re toxic. We need to get away from them, just be an “us.” You and me, what do you say?

It didn’t work. Aziraphale still wanted Crowley to go to Heaven with him and said, “Nothing lasts forever.”

“No, no I suppose it doesn’t,” Crowley said, wishing Aziraphale “good luck.” But when Aziraphale pleaded with Crowley and said, “I need you,” Crowley call him an “idiot” because they “could have been… us” together. That’s when Crowley kissed him.

How Did Aziraphale Respond to Crowley Kissing Him? Did Crowley and Aziraphale Get Together in Good Omens Season Two?

“I forgive you,” said a shocked Aziraphale after their kiss. “Don’t bother,” responded Crowley as he left.

It might not have been the ending either of them wanted. Nor was it exactly the one Good Omens‘ fans hoped for when they dreamed of seeing that Crowley and Aziraphale kiss. But with a third season looking likely, it might be the start of something millions of years in the making.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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When Good Omens arrived on Prime Video in 2019 it ended years of frustration for fans of the book. Many attempts at adapting Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel had failed previously. But the show’s long-awaited arrival created a whole new problem: viewers wanted another season. Only, Pratchett passed away in 2015 and two authors never wrote their planned sequel, so was another season even possible?

Not only was the answer “yes,” it seems we’re going to get at least one more. The finale of Good Omens‘ sophomore season set up an explosive third installment. And it might finally lead to something even bigger than the Apocalypse. Because Crowley and Aziraphale won’t be the only ones returning when the show does.

Why Did Gabriel and Beelzebub Start Meeting in Secret During Good Omens Season Two?

The demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale successfully thwarted the start of Armageddon during Good Omens‘ first season. That showdown would have resulted in the destruction of Earth, a place both had come to love. Saving the world came with a cost. Each was labeled a “traitorous” outcast. Every other angel and demon in Heaven and Hell had been eagerly awaiting the Apocalypse’s arrival, and no war left both factions’ respective leaders with the same issue.

The Supreme Archangel Gabriel, the only First Order Angel in the universe, had 10 million angels thirsting for a fight. Same for the Grand Duke of Hell, the Lord of Flies, Beelzebub. She had 10 million demons obsessed with attacking Heaven’s forces.

While each had also wanted war, their personal desire for the Apocalypse abated after it didn’t happen. So to find a solution to their shared problem (and with neither actually sure they’d win) they met for secret “background talks” on Earth. In a Scottish pub called The Resurrectionist they decided to maintain the status quo despite their underlings’ preferences. That would lead to a different kind of battle for Gabriel.

Why Did the Other Angels Put Gabriel on Trial?

Gabriel “nah’ed” his fellow angels plan to initiate Armageddon a second time. They couldn’t understand why he said no. They thought the Apocalypse would mean “the final victory of Heaven on Earth,” the end of “time and the world,” and the start of eternity “forever and ever.” That was everything Gabriel had always wanted before, same as them.

His refusal to explain his decision led the other leading angels of Heaven put him on trial. Gabriel was fine was with a guilty verdict when he thought it meant banishment to Hell. Instead the Archangel (and Heaven’s Duty Officer) Michael, the Archangel Uriel, the Metatron, and the angel Saraqael sentenced him to a demotion with his mind erased. Before they could punish him, however, Gabriel asked if he could clear out his desk as a ruse to escape. Only his plan led him someplace he didn’t mean to go.

Why Did Gabriel End Up at Aziraphale’s Bookshop on Good Omens?

In an attempt to keep his memory safe Gabriel intentionally erased his own mind before Heaven could. It turned out he stored his memories inside a very special fly Beelzebub had given him during one of their secret meetings. He then put the fly inside a box with a message written on the bottom explaining the insect’s significance.

Gabriel originally meant to flee to Beelzebub, but once he erased his mind he forgot about that part of his plan. Instead he instinctively went to Aziraphale, because he knew Aziraphale would help him even though Gabriel had previously tried to murder him. Crowley also (reluctantly) agreed to assist his friend in keeping the archangel safe and hidden. To do so they combined their powers for a small miracle that kept Gabriel’s true identity a secret from angels and demons alike. Everyone finally learned the truth when Gabriel got his memory back in Good Omens‘ season two finale. That’s also when everyone learned that the leaders of Heaven and Hell had fallen in love.

Why Did Gabriel and Beelzebub Fall in Love on Good Omens?

The Heaven and Hell of Good Omens are lonely places devoid of real connections, especially for those at the top. During their secret meetings Gabriel and Beelzebub not only found someone to spend time with, they found someone who understood them and the unique challenges they both faced.

They also discovered the joy of doing something kind for another being and the feeling you get when someone does something kind for you. Gabriel made sure Beelzebub would always hear Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” anytime the pub’s jukebox played. It would always be there for the “afflicted.” As a thank you she gave him that special fly, the first thing anyone had ever given him in millions of years of existence.

All the things angels and demons don’t do normally—spend time with others and be good to them—led the two to fall in love. When their relationship came to light they opted to leave Earth, Heaven, and Hell behind forever so they could be together.

But their happy ending left two huge voids in Heaven and Hell.

Who Will Lead Heaven and Hell After Gabriel and Beelzebub?

While not yet official, Miranda Richardson’s Shax seems poised to follow Beelzebub as the new Grand Duke of Hell. Michael expected to do the same with Gabriel’s job as the Supreme Archangel of Heaven, but the Voice of God, the Metatron denied her the job. Instead he sent Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael back to Heaven where it will be determined if they did anything wrong.

Instead the Metatron offered the position to the angel Heaven cast out for stopping Armageddon and working with a demon: Aziraphale.

Why Does the Metatron Want Aziraphale to Lead Heaven?

The Metatron explained to Aziraphale why he is the only choice to take command of the Heavenly host. He said Aziraphale is “a leader, honest, and doesn’t just tell people what they want to hear.” That’s why Gabriel instinctively went to the bookshop owner when he needed help. And with “enormous projects coming up” the Metatron needs an angel with those qualities to take over and “wrap things up” so they can “set into motion the next step in the Great Plan.”  

That next step is one very big return that will require Heaven’s leader to know a lot about Earth.

What Is the “Second Coming” Good Omens Teased in Season Two’s Finale?

There’s only one “second coming” the Metatron could have been referring to. It will be even bigger than Armageddon. The Voice of God wants the Earth/human expert Aziraphale in charge of Heaven when Jesus Christ returns to the world in season three.

But before the son of God comes back to Earth in season three (which will be the inverse of Satan’s son arriving in the season one), season two ended with Crowley refusing to return to Heaven.

Why Did Crowley Refuse to Become an Angel Again?

Part of the reason Aziraphale accepted the Metatron’s offer is that it came with a key provision. Aziraphale could choose whomever he wanted to work with. That included the fallen former angel Crowley. While it was clear the Metatron does not like Crowley, he saw the two had done good work together over millennia. Aziraphale’s position came with the authority to restore his best friend to “full angelic status.”

While Aziraphale thought that the two of them returning to Heaven would be “like the old times, only even nicer” with Crowley as his second in command, Crowley refused to go.

“We’re better than that,” Crowley said to Aziraphale. “You’re better than that, angel. You don’t need them.” Crowley can see Heaven and Hell are two sides of the same awful, uncaring coin. But Aziraphale still believes in what Heaven should be. He still views it as the side of “good” and believes with them in charge it can actually live up to that promise. Even if Crowley agreed with his partner, he wouldn’t have wanted to go to Heaven.

Why Did Crowley Kiss Aziraphale on Good Omens?

While Aziraphale told Crowley about taking over Heaven, the demon had been waiting to share his own big announcement. Nina and Maggie convinced Crowley to be honest about his feelings for his “partner.” So before leaving in anger Crowley professed his love for Aziraphale and kissed him. He wanted the two of them to leave Heaven, Hell, and Earth behind same as Gabriel and Beelzebub.

“You idiot. We could have been…us,” he said before walking out of the bookshop, which the angel Muriel will care for while Aziraphale is in Heaven. How long he’ll stay in charge of his fellow angels remains to be seen, because the Second Coming might lead to something even worse than Armageddon. It’s a war Crowley spoke of in both seasons’ finales.

What Did Crowley Call the “Really Big One” in Good Omens First Season?

Aziraphale and Crowley stopped Armageddon in season one. And yet, a grand war between Heaven and Hell is not what Crowley believes is “the big one” that awaits Earth. He thinks that war will be Heaven and Hell fighting together against Earth and humans. It’s a fear he echoed during season two’s final moments. “When Heaven ends life here one Earth it will be just as dead as if Hell ended it,” he said.

Is that what the Second Coming will lead to? The end of life on Earth? We’ll have to wait for season three to find out. But no matter what happens on Prime Video’s Good Omens we know Terry Pratchett’s influence will still be felt.

Will Good Omens Season Three Be Based on an Idea Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett Had?

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett had an idea for a sequel they never wrote. Gaiman has said their follow-up book would have focused more on angels and he incorporated some of those elements into Good Omens‘ first season. (Gabriel does not appear in the book, for example.)

We thought season two would adapt the unwritten sequel, but Gaiman has said it will actually be the basis for season three. Season two was based on an original idea of his that he said was necessary to connect the original story with the other one he and Pratchett plotted out. That doesn’t mean his late friend’s presence wasn’t felt during season two. In fact, every episode it got just a little closer.

Why Was Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” a Tribute to Terry Pratchett?

Just a few years after Good Omens hit bookshelves in 1990 Terry Pratchett said Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” would be a great theme song for a possible adaptation. He thought the contrast of the upbeat music with foreboding lyrics made it a perfect choice to capture the tone and story of the book.

Prime Video’s series was originally going to use the song, in some form, as its title track. But Gaiman agreed an original song by composer David Arnold was a better choice. That ultimately worked out for the best in both seasons. Good Omens has a great theme song of its own and Gaiman was able to honor his late friend and partner by making “Everyday” such an important and meaningful part of season two’s beautiful story. Every time it played it paid homage to Terry Pratchett’s memory and influence on the show.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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You would think stopping the literal end of the world would earn you some serious bonus points with Heaven. That’s not what happened in Good Omens first season, though. Angels wanted to fight Satan’s army just as much as demons wanted another war with God’s. Neither side cared billions of innocent people would die as a result. Only one angel and one demon did. So what happened to our favorite supernatural beings once they helped foil Armageddon? Here’s where Crowley and Aziraphale stand with the forces of Heaven and Hell ahead of Good Omens season two.

Why Did Angels and Demons Both Want War on Good Omens?

“Wars are to be won” and “not avoided” is an obviously evil stance for anyone to take. It’s the kind of attitude we’d expect to hear only a truly evil leader say. But those were the words of Heaven’s archangels on Good Omens. Ten million celestial beings wanted to take up arms against ten million equally excited soldiers of Satan. After thousands of years of anticipation both sides were eager to finally destroy the other.

Neither Heaven nor Hell worried all humans would die in the ensuing war. Angels and demons alike certainly didn’t care about destroying Earth itself, either. If not for one single angel and one single demon Heaven and Hell would have had the Apocalypse they so desperately wanted.

Why Did Aziraphale and Crowley Want to Stop Armageddon?

Azariphale and Crowley had called Earth home since Adam and Eve resided in the Garden of Eden. Over six thousand years the two had not only grown quite fond of each other, they’d grown fond of the lives they’d built for themselves among humans. Working with little supervision, they’d been mostly free to partake in Earthly delights. Whether reading, listening to Queen, or getting drunk, they both had it good on Earth. They also both had a soft spot for humans and a general dislike of their respective kind. Hell is dreadful and full of uninteresting cretins. Heaven is sterile and full of smug elitists. But Earth is full of interesting things and people.

So once the two learned Satan was sending his son the Antichrist to trigger the Apocalypse, Aziraphale and Crowley conspired to work together and stop it entirely. Their initial plan didn’t come together as they’d hoped, but in the end they helped prevent the End Times. Good news for mankind, yes. But you don’t stop a war every other angel and demon crave without creating armies of supernatural enemies.

How Did Heaven and Hell Punish Aziraphale and Crowley

Heaven kidnapped Aziraphale and Hell kidnapped Crowley shortly after the pair stopped Armageddon. Both faced the ultimate punishment.

Despite claiming to be on the side of good, Heaven’s highest ranking officer delighted in ordering Aziraphale’s death. The Archangel Gabriel had wanted war with Hell more than anyone. Not getting to lead Heaven’s forces caused him another big problem, too. Gabriel had to deal with a lot of frustrated, bloodthirsty angels.

Meanwhile, Gabriel’s counterpart in Hell, Lord Beelzebub, served as judge over Crowley’s trial. Once Hell’s demons convicted Crowley for treason, Beelzebub sentenced “the traitor” to a painful death, too. For him that would mean bathing in Holy Water, delivered to Hell by the Archangel Michael herself. Crowley had killed a Duke of Hell the same way earlier in the season.

In Heaven a demon delivered literal Hellfire to aide Gabriel in murdering Aziraphale. But once more the duo ruined their superiors’ plans.

How Did Aziraphale and Crowley Avoid Death in Good Omens Season 1?

Angels and demons might be supernatural beings, but they’re not especially smart or competent. They were no match for their two Earth-wise counterparts with millennia of experience working as unlikely partners. Especially not when the final nice and accurate prophecy of the witch Agnes Nutter warned Aziraphale and Crowley their respective factions would come looking to punish them for stopping Armageddon.

Thanks to her warning they had planned for their death sentences by swapping bodies. That’s how Crowley was able to survive his Holy Water bath. it was really Aziraphale splashing around in a liquid that is totally harmless to angels. And in Heaven it was actually Crowley bathing in Hellfire, which couldn’t possibly hurt him.

Why Do Heaven and Hell Fear Aziraphale and Crowley?

Not only did their clever switcheroo save their lives, it also granted Aziraphale and Crowley another measure of protection. Gabriel and the other archangels couldn’t understand how Aziraphale survived Hellfire. Nor could Beelzebub and the other Dukes of Hell make sense of how Crowley could be immune to Holy Water. As a result both factions grew fearful of the two friends.

They seemed more powerful than any other angel or demon. So as “Crowley” told Beelzebub, it was probably best if they simply left the two of them alone.

That’s where the two stand before Good Omens second season. Each has been branded a traitor by their former faction. Heaven and Hell both hate Aziraphale and Crowley, but they also fear them. So as Crowley had said the night they stopped Armageddon, the two no longer have a “side.” They don’t belong to Heave on Hell. They are on their own side.

But Heaven and Hell will come calling on the two again. “They’ll leave us alone,” said Crowley. “For a bit.” Good Omens season two trailer show it won’t a very long bit.

Probably not the best news for our favorite angel and demon. But it will be for fans.We need Aziraphale and Crowley just as much as Heaven and Hell ever did.

Good Omens returns for its second season on Prime Video on July 28th.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at  @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Good Omens on Prime Video finally brought the beloved novel by Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett to the screen. The show also gave us a little taste of the sequel they planned but never wrote. Gabriel and his fellow angels would have played a big part in that follow-up book. That’s why Gaiman greatly expanded their role in the adaptation. It was a chance to finally introduce them to fans. But the archangel’s story is just getting started. The first trailer for Good Omens season two finds Jon Hamm’s Gabriel lost, confused, and at the center of a budding war between Heaven and Hell. And only Michael Sheen’s Aziraphale and David Tennant’s Crowley can stop it. Maybe.

And we thought the Apocalypse was fun!

So what’s going on with Heaven’s most arrogant angel? Why is he wandering around in a makeshift toga as the forces of good and evil engage in a hunt to find him first? And why did he seek out a “traitor” whose best friend is a demon? The trailer gives us a taste of what’s going on, but here’s the Good Omens season two synopsis from Prime Video:

Having been on Earth since The Beginning, and with the Apocalypse thwarted, the duo are getting back to easy living amongst mortals in London’s Soho. That is, until the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) turns up unexpectedly at the door of Aziraphale’s bookshop with no memory of who he is or how he got there. While Crowley is leery as to why the archangel has come to the bookshop, Aziraphale is keen to solve the mystery behind Gabriel’s condition. However, hiding the archangel from both Heaven and Hell quickly disrupts their lives in unforeseen ways. To solve this mystery and thwart Heaven and Hell in the process, the duo will need more than a miracle; they’ll need to once again rely on each other. 

Season two might be a new story, but it will still let us hop around time. Prime Video says the show’s mystery “takes us from before The Beginning, to biblical times, grave robbing in Victorian Edinburgh, the Blitz of 1940s England, all the way through to modern day.”

Good Omens season two will also see the return of two other archangels. Doon Mackichan is back as Michael and Gloria Obianyo returns as Uriel. Fellow season one star Miranda Richardson is also getting in on the fun again. Only this time she’s playing the demon Shax. Other season one alums in new roles include Maggie Service as Maggie and Nina Sosanya as Nina. Newcomers include Liz Carr as the angel Saraqael, Quelin Sepulveda as another angel named Muriel, and Shelley Conn as the demon Beelzebub.

Will they all try to kill one another by the end of the six-episode season? Or can war be averted same as the Apocalypse? And will someone get Gabriel pants? We’ll find out when Good Omens (in any medium) gets a long-awaited sequel at Prime Video on July 28.

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Whether you read Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch when it first came to bookshelves in 1990, or you only experienced the story for the first time thanks to Amazon’s great new mini-series, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Apocalyptic comedy is worth reliving. But we’re not just talking about watching the show again (which we will), we’re talking about reading—or rereading—the novel, because it has more to offer from this wonderful tale of an angel and demon who team up to stop Armageddon.

Great Scenes and Characters That Didn’t Make The Cut

As far as adaptations go, Good Omens is incredibly faithful, in large part because Neil Gaiman wrote all six episodes himself. But even with six hour-long episodes, certain cuts had to be made because of “money and time.” Unfortunately those omissions included some of our favorite sequences and characters. Here are just a few of the things we curse Heaven and here for not getting to see on the screen.

The Them

Adam Young and his crew of friends still played a vital role in the series, but less so than in the book. In the novel, the Them are for more curious about the world, and their brainstorming sessions are among the funniest scenes in the book, as is their hilarious, much longer attempt at their own Spanish Inquisition. Also, Adam’s protective love for Lower Tadfield and his connection with his adoring friends get a deeper exploration, and the more you know about Adam, about who and what he loves, the more powerful his journey becomes. If you liked what you saw of the Them, you’ll love what you get to read about them.

Aziraphale’s Body-Jumping Adventure

Aziraphale’s spirit doesn’t jump straight into Madame Tracy’s body in the book like he does on the show; he spends some time hopping around the planet into others first, giving Good Omens one of its funniest sequences. This was always a likely cut (you can’t have one of your lead characters disappear for that long on a TV show), but that didn’t make us miss it any less. Not only is it hysterical, it’s also meaningful to the theme, since the people he overtakes connect to the story of good and evil—especially a televangelist.

Mr. Young and Mary Loquacious

The well-meaning, mostly hapless Mr. Young is one of our favorite minor characters in the novel, and, while we loved the version we saw in the mini-series, we wanted a lot more of him. That was also true for Sister Mary Loquacious, whose wonderful incompetence led to the Antichrist baby mix-up. They are both wonderful characters, and the two have a long, absurd conversation during Adam’s “birth” the show only hinted at. That moment alone is reason enough to read the novel.

The Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Not only do we wish we got to see a lot more from the actual Four Horseman—especially War, who helps create a lot more needless (and hysterical) bloodshed in the book—we were praying we’d get to see the other Four Horsemen join them on their ride to Lower Tadfield. They are four bikers who meet the actual Horsemen at the diner (during an amazing scene with Death playing an arcade trivia game). The incompetent group gives themselves very specific, very funny “horrible” names and we love everything about them even if they technically ride with evil.

A Different Path Down a Beautiful Road

Amazon’s adaptation is far more direct with its themes. That was a necessary and effective change for a TV show, but the trade-off was that it removed some of the subtlety and beauty of Gaiman and Pratchett’s story, which is full of poignant insights and observations.

On the show, Heaven and here are clearly two sides of the same terrible coin. No matter how you flip it, no one wins with moral absolutism. The presence of Jon Hamm’s Gabriel, only mentioned once in the book, is a big reason for this. No one would confuse him with a truly good person/celestial being. This idea is much more subtle in the novel, as Aziraphale’s thoughts continue to hint at this truth, even as the angel himself is slow to realize it. If anything, he has even more of an evil streak in the book since he is Heaven’s only representative, even though he is consistently trying to do the right thing for the right reasons (which itself is meaningful).

Also, the relationships that prove so vital in stopping Armageddon—Crowley and Aziraphale, Anathema and Newt, Shadwell and Madame Tracy, the Them (and their own young opposition group who didn’t make it onto the show)—are developed in a much more intimate way in the books. Even if the main ideas are the same in both versions of the story, how they are expressed are different enough and are only enriched by reading the novel.

It’s More Rewarding (and Clearer) the Second Time

The only thing better than experiencing Good Omens the first time is experiencing it the second time. There are payoffs to things you didn’t even know were being set up the first time through (like the presence of a certain fast food chef, only hinted at on the show). At times, the story, written in a frantic, chaotic manner, is confusing. Some sections aren’t exactly clear the first time through, and they are richer and more fulfilling when you know exactly what is happening the second time. There’s a reason some book fans have reread it dozens of times. Each time through you pick up on new jokes and insights.

Season two of Good Omens will release on July 28. So it’s a great time to think about the series again. If you have only watched the mini-series, or haven’t picked up your copy of the book in a long time, Good Omens feels designed to be enjoyed even more the second (or third or fourth or…) time. And what would be a greater tribute to the late Terry Pratchett than if the adaptation he asked his friend Neil Gaiman to create then led to more people reading their book?

That alone is worth reading, or rereading, it.

Originally published on June 4, 2019.

Featured Image: Prime Video

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With The Sandman available to stream on Netflix and more episodes coming soon, many viewers are no doubt wondering just what the powers and abilities of the principal character and his siblings are. Are they gods? Demons? Actually, Neil Gaiman’s Endless, as Sandman’s family is known, is neither. But also more. The Endless are extremely powerful anthropomorphic embodiments of the universe’s natural forces. And they’ve existed for billions of years.

The Endless are each the seven children of even older entities, known as Mother Night and Father Time. Destiny was born first, followed by Death, then Dream, Destruction, the twins known as Desire and Despair, and finally, Delirium, the youngest. But what individual powers do The Sandman‘s Endless possess? They share many of the same abilities, but they do differ in a few key ways. Let’s take a look at all the powers we can expect to see come to life in The Sandman series on Netflix.

The Endless’ Powers on The Sandman

The Powers of Dream (Morpheus)

Dream is the true name of the titular Sandman, who is also known as Morpheus. He is the anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams, hence the name. He is one of the most powerful beings in the universe and, like his other siblings in the Endless, is immortal. If Dream is killed in any way, his essence will simply fuse with another being and continue on.

Aside from controlling and influencing the dream life of all living creatures, Dream or Morpheus has other incredible powers in The Sandman‘s world. He is capable of wielding great magic and is also capable of altering reality itself. Dream’s powers also include the ability to teleport anywhere he wishes to go, and he can shapeshift as well. He is almost impossible to injure, but he can be captured. As one of the Endless, he can literally be in all places at once. Morpheus feeds on the dreams of humanity but in turn, can give ordinary humans any dream or nightmare he thinks of.

Although innately powerful, Dream is made even more so with the help of several powerful talismans. The first of Dream’s tools is the Sand of Sleep, which can instantly render a mortal into unconsciousness and can release dreams into the real world. Additionally, his ruby Dreamstone focuses his powers and is exceedingly dangerous in the hands of a mortal. And finally, Dream possesses the Helm of Dreams, a helmet made from the bones of a dead god, which protects Dream from almost any harm.

Death’s Powers and Abilities

Sandman’s big sister is Death, and although a happy, cheerful sort, she is the anthropomorphic embodiment of the end of life, just as her name suggests. She is Dream’s closest sibling and often gives him advice. Presenting as a young woman, Death is there at the end of every living being’s life to guide them to whatever afterlife lies beyond this one.

Having said that, Death does not personally take any souls to the next realm, she merely prepares them to accept they are no longer alive. Since people are dying constantly everywhere, she is nearly omnipresent on Earth at all times. Death’s powers allow her to see spirits on Earth, and in fact, she can leave certain souls in the plane to wander as ghosts. She loves her job and does it very well and is perhaps the most well-adjusted of the Endless family.

The Omniscient Powers of The Sandman’s Destiny

Destiny is the personification of fate itself. In The Sandman universe, his true powers lie in his vast and infinite knowledge. Although technically blind, he can “see” the fate (or possible fate) of every living being in existence. He knows everything there is to know about everyone’s past, present, and future. In fact, he can see even the smallest details that make up the universe. To paraphrase a movie title, he knows all about “everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Destiny has a giant book literally chained to his person, which contains the story of every person known to exist. A book he’s been carrying around for literally 10 billion years. (It must be getting heavy by now.) Like the rest of his Endless family, he is immortal. Destiny is the one member of the Endless Sandman writer Neil Gaiman didn’t create. New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths creator Marv Wolfman originally created him back in 1972.

Delirium’s Powers

Delirium, who was previously known as Delight, is one of the hardest to describe members of the Endless. She is Dream’s youngest sister and the absolute ruler of her realm, a world that controls both sanity and madness. Her realm is abstract, filled with constantly morphing colors and shapes. Delirium’s powers in The Sandman include shapeshifting, and she is constantly changing forms to suit her changing mood.

Delirium also has telepathic abilities, as well as those of precognition. She can teleport and has almost total mastery of all forms of magic. Most importantly, she has omnipresence. This means she is everywhere on Earth at every moment, although most can’t perceive her presence. This is a trait she shares with most of her siblings in the Endless.

The Powers of The Sandman‘s Desire

The entity known as Desire is the literal personification of want and of humanity’s propensity to crave what it cannot have. Desire lords over all human feelings of physical and emotional need, as well as the feeling of satisfaction when one has attained what they wished for. They are known as the most malicious of the Endless. And they particularly like to mess with Dream. Desire is androgynous and genderless and appears in whatever way they please, thanks to their shapeshifting powers in The Sandman. Like their sibling in the Endless, Desire also has control over all magics, and is an omnipresent force in the world, appearing everywhere and anywhere they choose.

Despair’s Powers

Despair is the twin sister of Desire. But she couldn’t be more different, certainly in appearance. While Desire is physically beautiful, Despair is the opposite. She lords over all human feelings of hopelessness, sadness, and general anxiety. Like the rest of her siblings, Despair can be anywhere and everywhere in the world at any given moment. She also has total mastery over sorcery in The Sandman and the power to shapeshift too. Although vastly different from her twin Desire, the two of them have a special animosity towards Dream and have schemed against him repeatedly over the centuries.

The Powers of Destruction in The Sandman

Destruction is one of the most interesting of the Endless, as he is the only one to totally abandon his kingdom and his duties. As his name suggests, Destruction was the ruler over all ruination. Despite the name, Destruction was not a negative being. Only with the destruction of the old can new things and new ideas come to fruition after all. But with the advent of man’s discovery of science, he knew humanity would wield ultimate weapons like the atom bomb. Despondent, he abandoned his kingdom and became known as the prodigal sibling. Like the rest of his family in The Sandman, he has powers over magic and shapeshifting and is omnipresent in all places on Earth.

The Restrictions of the Endless’ Powers in The Sandman

Despite their awesome power, each member of the Endless is bound by a very specific set of rules. None of them can harm one of their siblings or risk losing their powers. They also can’t fall in love with a mortal. The only member of the Endless not bound by any rules is Death, who exists beyond the need for rules. Although not all appear in season one of The Sandman, we expect each member of the Endless to appear when more episodes arrive. We can’t wait to see their powers and abilities come to life.

Originally published on July 22, 2022.

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Netflix’s The Sandman is a loving tribute to the original comic published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. Many of its characters remain consistent from page to screen, even if their genders are different in the show. In a world where comics and their Hollywood adaptations have never felt more separate, The Sandman’s attention to detail in regards to its source material feels revolutionary. In one instance, The Sandman tucks in a deep cut from John Constantine’s Hellblazer comics. This small yet vital mention adds another heartbreaking dimension to one of the series’ saddest moments. 

The Sandman adapts the comic written by Neil Gaiman, with art by Sam Kieth, Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, and more. The story chronicles the journey of Dream (Tom Sturridge), also known as Morpheus of the Endless. Dream is responsible for protecting a space known as The Dreaming, a place of infinite possibility and power channeled from the dreams of humanity. Dream is captured and imprisoned for a period of one hundred years on Earth. After this, The Dreaming falls into disrepair, with Dream’s objects of office—a helm, the ruby Dreamstone, and a pouch of sand—scattered across the Earth and in Hell. As Dream sets off to recover each object one by one, he comes across a powerful, irreverent magic user named Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) who is in possession of his sand pouch. 

Johanna Constantine is based off of the occult detective John Constantine. His appearances in the Sandman comics and in his Hellblazer solo series paint him as a deeply flawed yet charming master manipulator. Magicians are often portrayed as wise and noble in traditional English fantasy stories; however, Constantine is the dramatic opposite. He’s foul-mouthed, difficult to trust, and cursed with an uncanny ability to make terrible decisions impacting his loved ones. Johanna Constantine is canonically John’s ancestor from the 18th century in DC Comics. But Coleman’s portrayal in The Sandman is the most faithful adaptation of the character in live-action. 

This faithfulness to both Constantine’s character and Hellblazer comics is heartbreakingly clear in episode three of the Sandman TV series. In “Dream A Little Dream of Me,” a deep cut reference cements Constantine’s tragic love life. Johanna retrieves Dream’s sand pouch from the apartment of her ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Eleanor Fanyinka). While there, Johanna’s former flame reveals that she called up several of her exes in order to find Johanna. This list includes Oliver, a reference to the Constantine: the Hellblazer comics series by Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV, and Riley Rossmo. In this comic series, John Constantine dated a man of the same name. Oliver met a terrible fate after he made a deal with a demon to condemn his soul to Hell in exchange for the safety of his two daughters. It is a tragic end that is unfortunately common for many of Constantine’s lovers. 

Referencing this particular moment in Constantine’s publication history is significant. It underscores The Sandman’s commitment to its source material as well as the queerness of its characters. John Constantine is one of the most high profile bisexual characters in DC Comics. And the Constantine: the Hellblazer series (2015-2016) remains the most thorough exploration of his queer sexuality in comics. Taking an element of Constantine: the Hellblazer and putting it into The Sandman affirms the show’s depth of lore. And it also cements Oliver and John’s relationship as an indispensable part of his persona.

The Sandman placing this relationship within the context of Johanna and Rachel’s story makes it even more heartbreaking. The version of Rachel that Johanna had been speaking to was later revealed to be an illusion. The real Rachel lays wasting away in her bed, her body emaciated from holding onto Dream’s sand pouch. It’s a cruel reminder to Constantine that her magical prowess always has an adverse effect on the people around her. Johanna thought she was protecting Rachel by vanishing from her life. But she ended up inadvertently dooming Rachel anyway, just as John did with Oliver in Constantine: the Hellblazer. 

By reimagining John Constantine as Johanna in the show, The Sandman queers his original relationship with Rachel. But this happens while also providing a callback to the comics run that radically reimagined his character in the 21st century. This establishes Constantine’s bisexuality in the most Hellblazer way possible, as the phantasm of a former lover lays out the tragic timeline of Constantine’s past.

The Sandman’s Oliver seems to have escaped his sad comics fate; however, viewers never truly know what happened between him and Johanna. Regardless, The Sandman makes it clear that Oliver still remains a ghostly presence in this iteration of Constantine’s life, a fact that haunts both comics fans and now emergent fans of the show. 

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After many decades of development, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is finally coming to live-action, thanks to a new series on Netflix. DC Comics’ Sandman, known by his proper names Dream and Morpheus, is the master of the Dreaming, an otherworldly realm where our dreams and nightmares originate. He is one of the Endless, an immortal family with a long and tangled history. But which characters from the comics make it into season one? Here are the key players for the first season of The Sandman on Netflix:

Dream/Morpheus (Tom Sturridge)

Dream, or Morpheus as he is also known, is the titular Sandman of the series. He is one of the Endless, living embodiments of human attributes that have existed for billions of years. He has complete control of the Dreaming, the realm where humans spend one-third of their lives. And he has nearly unlimited magical abilities. In the comic book series, a power-hungry human traps Dream for decades, letting his magical totems fall into the wrong hands. Much of the early Sandman stories involved him getting them back, and we expect the Netflix series to start out the same way.

Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong)

The head librarian in the Dreaming, Lucien (in the Netflix series, spelled Lucienne) lives in Morpheus’ castle, where the books on everyone’s lives and stories reside. In the original comics, Lucien was a man, but they gender swap him for the Netflix series. When Dream vanished for a century, Lucien was effectively in charge of the Dreaming. But when Morpheus returns, Lucien becomes the Sandman’s right hand again. Their relationship is respectful but sometimes prickly.

Cain and Abel (Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry)

Cain and Abel were actually DC Comics characters that existed in horror anthology titles from the 1970s, like House of Mystery and House of Secrets. But Neil Gaiman reinvented them for The Sandman, as dreams that are manifestations of the Biblical characters of the same name. They are, essentially, the first murderer and the first murder victim. And in the Dreaming, Cain is constantly killing Abel over and over again, in an endless cycle. They also have an adorable pet Gargoyle.

Matthew the Raven (Patton Oswalt)

Matthew the Raven is another character Neil Gaiman reimagined from DC Comics lore. He was originally Matt Cable, a government agent who was a character in the Swamp Thing comics. Neil Gaiman resurrected him as Dream’s Raven companion, where he simply goes by the name Matthew. We imagine that the connections to the world of Swamp Thing get brushed aside. But since Patton Oswalt voices him, we’re more than ok with that.

John Dee (David Thewlis)

In the original comics, John Dee is the real name of the Justice League villain, Doctor Destiny. He used the stolen Dreamstone of Morpheus, gifted to him by his mother, to give himself vast powers. An inmate at Arkham Asylum, he later breaks free and causes all kinds of damage. In the comics, he has an almost skeletal look, which they’re not keeping for the show. But the great David Thewlis plays him on the series, so we get it. Why cover up that expressive face?

The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook)

The being known as the Corinthian is a male-presenting figure, who is actually a nightmare creation of Morpheus. He escaped the Dreaming, and let loose in the waking world, where he murders young men for sport. Having no eyes, and instead, two small mouths where his eyes would be, the Corinthian always wears sunglasses to hide these terrifying features. He inspired a whole century’s worth of serial killers. Killers who thought of themselves as “collectors.”

Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste)

Death is Dream’s positively cheerful sister, who is exactly what her name suggests—the embodiment of the end of life. In the comics, she is portrayed as a young woman, who always wears an ankh necklace around her neck. She is there at the end of everyone’s life, guiding them into what comes next for them beyond this world. She is her brother Dream’s closest friend among his Endless family. And she is the only one who can speak to him in certain honest terms.

Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman)

Many fans know DC Comics supernatural investigator and occult expert John Constantine. If not from the movie Constantine with Keanu Reeves, then by his role in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. But in Sandman, Neil Gaiman introduced his ancestor, Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century adventurer. She only made a few appearances in the comics, but it looks like she will have an expanded role in the Netflix series. Probably taking over her descendant’s role in the present day.

Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie)

Lucifer Morningstar is the Fallen Angel and ruler of Hell, just as in the Biblical tales. The absolute ruler in the realm of the Underworld, Lucifer appears androgynous and was designed to look like a young David Bowie. Lucifer has ruled in Hell for over 10 billion years, during which time a rivalry with Dream began. Gwendoline Christie portrays Lucifer in the series. Interestingly enough, the main character on the TV series Lucifer is also based on Neil Gaiman’s version of the character from The Sandman.

Rose Walker (Kyo Ra)

In the original comics, Rose Walker is a young American woman with incredible power. Unknown to anyone but those in the Dreaming, Rose is a once-in-a-millennium individual known as a Dream Vortex. In other words, a human who can break down the barriers between dreams and reality. But in the Waking World, she’s just a concerned sister trying to reconnect with her missing brother. She is a major character in the collection of Sandman stories, The Doll’s House and she plays an important role in season one of The Sandman.

Lyta and Hector Hall (Razane Jammal and Lloyd Everitt)

In the comics, Hippolyta “Lyta” Trevor Hall and her husband, Hector Hall, are the children of icons. Lyta is the daughter of the 1940s Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, named Hippolyta after Diana’s Mother. Hector is the son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. As young people, they were the heroes Fury and Silver Scarab. After Hector dies, his dream self manages to impregnate his wife Lyta, creating a break in the barrier between Dreams and Reality. Both characters appear in the Netflix series, only with their connections to iconic DC heroes removed.

The Sandman season one arrives on Netflix on August 5.

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Netflix is about to finally make Neil Gaiman fans’ dreams come true. Or rather, their Dream come true. The streaming site is developing the author’s seminal DC comic book The Sandman as a TV series. After years of failed attempts at bringing the story of Morpheus to the big screen, what can we expect from a television adaptation? Here’s everything we know about The Sandman.

Title

This comic-based series shares its name with its source material. This Netflix show is titled The Sandman.

The Sandman‘s Plot

DC Comics

Before we dive into the show, let’s review what we know about The Sandman comic book. Issue #1 of The Sandman debuted in 1989, and its primary story ran for 75 issues until 1996. (Other supplementary issues came later, including an important prequel, Overture.) The show’s official logline does as good a job as any describing Neil Gaiman’s (and many artists’) legendary, surreal comic book series. From Netflix:

A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic—and human—mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.”

The latest trailer backs that up:

A further synopsis shares:

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 titular Sandman is one of the seven siblings known as the Endless. They are “the anthropomorphic embodiments of powerful natural forces” who predate gods. They each rule over a different realm of existence. And though they are powerful, they are not totally invulnerable, all-knowing, or free from the rules of the universe. We learn this important lesson the first time we meet Morpheus.

DC Comics

According to Gaiman, the show’s first season, which Netflix strangely says will be “ten episodes (plus one),” will cover the comics’ first volume, Preludes and Nocturnes; this spans issues one through eight. The season will also get into “a little bit more” from the comics, which will at least include Volume 2, The Doll’s House. That’s the second major storyline from Gaiman’s series, and it carries long-term ramifications for the rest of the story.

In a recent interview with Empire, Gaiman broke down some of the individual episodes more specifically. He shared:

You watch Episode 1 and think, ‘Oh, I get this thing: it’s like Downton Abbey, but with magic,’” he says. “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… 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.”

Gaiman has promised fans that the show is a faithful adaptation of the comics in both spirit and storyline. However, it will feature some changes. For one, the show will be set in present-day, which is 30 years later than when the comics take place.

Behind the Scenes

Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey’s Anatomy) serves as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. Gaiman and David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Krypton) also serve as writers and executive producers. The three co-wrote the first episode together. The series comes from Warner Bros. Television.

The Sandman‘s Cast

The sprawling story will have an equally sprawling cast. Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio, Sweetbitter) will star as the titular Sandman. The Lord of the Dreaming realm, also known as Morpheus and Oneiros, among many other names, will have two Game of Thrones alums as enemies. Gwendoline Christie will play Lucifer, Ruler of Hell. And Charles Dance joins the show as the dastardly Roderick Burgess, “charlatan, blackmailer, and magician.”

Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) will star as Lucienne, Dream’s chief librarian and trusted guardian. Boyd Holbrook (Logan) plays Sandman‘s infamous The Corinthian. He’s “an escaped nightmare who wishes to taste all that the world has in store.” Which he does literally. The Corinthian has teeth for eyes and a fondness for eating the eyes of others. And Asim Chaudhry (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday) will star as Abel and Cain. They are “the first victim and the first predator, residents and loyal subjects of the Dream Realm.”

We also know some of Morpheus’ Endless siblings. Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place) will play Dream’s iconic older sister, Death. Gaiman describes her as “wiser, nicer, and much more sensible.” Mason Alexander Park joins the cast as Morpheus’s troublesome younger sibling Desire. They got the part after publicly saying on Twitter they were interested in the role. And Donna Preston will play Desire’s sad, pained twin sister Despair.

Netflix and Gaiman have also announced a slew of other important roles. Which includes a mix of relative newcomers and famous faces.

• Jenna Coleman stars as 18th-century occult adventurer and John Constantine’s great-great-great grandmother Johanna Constantine. Unlike in the comics, we will also meet a present-day version of the character on the show.
• Joely Richardson plays an older Ethel Cripps, Roderick Burgess’ love and John Dee’s mother. She is “a woman of a hundred identities and a thousand lies.”
• Niamh Walsh will fill the role of a younger Ethel, circa when she was a “determined young woman seeking to survive” during the 1920s and ‘30s.
• David Thewlis will plays Ethel’s dangerous son John Dee. “Driven mad, long ago, [he’s] out and on a quest for Truth that may destroy the world.” He’s a lot of fun. If you find unimaginable horror “fun.”
• Kyo Ra is Rose Walker. She’s “a young woman on a desperate search for her missing brother, who finds a family she didn’t know that she had, and a connection to Dream that neither of them can escape.”
• Razane Jammal plays Rose’s friend Lyta Hall, a “young widow mourning her husband Hector.” However, Rose doesn’t know “Hector has started showing up in Lyta’s dreams,” or “that strange things are happening.”
• Sandra James-Young will play the heiress Unity Kinkaid. She is “Rose’s mysterious benefactor [who] spent a century asleep.” But now she’s awake after missing out on her whole life.
• Stephen Fry, the legend himself, will star as “Rose Walker’s debonair protector,” Gilbert. He is “a dab hand with a paradox and a sword cane.”
• Patton Oswalt will voice Dream’s trusted emissary, the dead human-turned raven, Matthew. He will be a real raven and not a CGI character. Oswalt was onboard before the show was even a show. Gaiman says the comedian “was the first person we asked, and the first person we cast, the day before we pitched The Sandman to Netflix.”

DC Comics

Finally, it has been announced that Mark Hamill will voice Merv Pumpkinhead.

The Sandman‘s Release Date

The Sandman will release on Netflix on August 5.

Originally published May 28, 2021.

The post Everything We Know About THE SANDMAN TV Series appeared first on Nerdist.

The Sandman is coming to Netflix. That’s a dream come true for fans of Neil Gaiman’s beloved graphic novel series. But the highly-anticipated adaptation is also bringing something terrifying with it – nightmares made flesh. They’re the focus of the show’s latest trailer, which debuted at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Because after a century away from his realm, the Lord of the Dreaming has much more than just his own realm to save.

If you are unfamiliar with Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel don’t worry. We have you covered with everything you need to know about the comic series. (Along with what you need to experience for yourself.) But this trailer introduces some of The Sandman‘s most dangerous characters. That includes The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), Doctor Destiny (David Thewlis), and Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie). But this promo only hints at the the true terror that awaits humanity after the long absence of the Lord of Dreams, Morpheus.

The show’s official synopsis from Netflix explains why he was away for so long and why his return is so important:

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.

This trailer isn’t all horrifying, though. (Just motsly horrifying.) It also features Morpheus’s talking raven, Matthew (voiced by Patton Oswalt), as well as his loyal librarian (Vivienne Acheampong). And we even get a brief glimpse at his servant Mervyn Pumpkinhead. (Mark Hamill will voice the constantly annoyed employee.)

This trailer for The Sandman also gives us a better glimpse at two members of Morpheus’s family, the Endless. Dream speaks to his sister Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and his sister-brother Desire (Mason Alexander Park).

But Death and Desire don’t scare us like those others. Which is exactly why we can’t wait to see The Sandman. Unfortunately we still have a couple more of doing just that. The series brings its nightmares to Netflix on August 5.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Whether or not you’ve read Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic book series featuring multiple artists ahead of Netflix’s upcoming series, you already know about The Sandman‘s realm. You go there every time you dream. And sometimes during your unconscious journey, if you’re lucky—or very, very unlucky—you even meet that land’s ruler. Not that you will remember your encounter. The moment you awaken his memory fades into oblivion like sand falling through your fingers. But the story of Morpheus is not limited to just one place. Nor is it limited to just one time or even a single dimension. The Sandman‘s tale is a trip through imagination itself, where anything is possible. But despite its ephemeral nature and supernatural main character, The Sandman‘s story—one that combines history, lore, legend, and myth—is profoundly human.

You just won’t know exactly what story it is telling until the end. And that’s the best way to experience The Sandman.

Neil Gaiman Brings Dream to Life

DC Comics’ first Sandman character, the Golden Age superhero Wesley Dodds, made his debut in 1939. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby then brought another Sandman, Garrett Sanford, to comic shelves in the ’70s. And in 1988 Hector Hall briefly took up the Sandman moniker. But those mortal characters have little to do with the Sandman of Neil Gaiman’s comic that ran for 75 issues from 1989 to 1996. (Gaiman returned to the series in his 1999 novella The Sandman: The Dream Hunters. He then completed the story with The Sandman: Overture, a prequel series published between 2013 and 2015.)

Every version of the Sandman exists within DC Comics continuity. But Gaiman’s iteration stands as the only true Sandman. The others simply received a small portion of the legendary Sandman’s powers during his prolonged absence during the 20th century. (We’ll get to that.)

The true Sandman is also known by many names. Some call him Morpheus or Oneiros, while others know him simply as Dream. But no matter his moniker, to every conscious entity throughout the universe he is the Lord of Dreaming. For his realm—the realm of dreams, nightmares, imagination, and stories—is called The Dreaming. It’s an infinite place of possibilities where Morpheus rules absolutely. Its library, just one of many parts found there, holds every book never written. (A concept I assure you haunts the person who wrote this sentence.)

Morpheus is not a singular being, though. Nor is The Dreaming the only realm of its kind. He is one of the seven Endless, a group of frequently bickering siblings who each rule over their own kingdom. And they are both simple and hard to define.

Who or What Are the Endless?

The Endless are not invincible, but they are essentially immortal. They are older and more powerful than gods and will exist until “this universe” is near its end. That’s because each is the physical manifestation of an aspect of life itself. They include (from oldest to youngest):

• Destiny
• Death
• Dream
• Destruction
• Desire
• Despair (Desire’s twin)
• Delirium (formerly Delight)

While Morpheus is Lord of the Dreaming, each member of the ageless Endless rules over their own domain. (Their names mostly speak for themselves.) But they are more than just a tangible representation of a natural force of life. They aren’t just ideas or concepts personified, either. They literally are those ideas. Morpheus is dream. Death is death. (Hence the “simple and hard” part of describing them. Their nebulous existence makes it inherently impossible to fully understand what they are even when you know what they are. It’s like trying to understand infinity.) The Endless can also go anywhere they like, including into the real world alongside mortal beings. And in Morpheus’ case, they can fall in and out of love with those beings.

(FYI: You do not want to fall in love with the mercurial Morpheus. A broken heart is often the best outcome you can hope for when your romance goes south.)

Despite their nature, the Endless are like most families. Each member plays their role and each relationship has its own dynamic. Some members are what you might call difficult or troublesome. Meanwhile others are loving and understanding. Sometimes it depends on which two siblings are interacting. They all have long, complicated pasts and don’t always get along or love each other as much as they do others. That’s why they argue, undermine, and sometimes even flat out hurt one another. With the exception of the kind and gentle Death, they are not even comfortable entering their siblings’ realms unless necessary. They do have an easy way of contacting the others, though. Each domain contains a gallery with individual sigils of each Endless. If one holds another’s symbol they can call out to that sibling.

When someone or something destroys/kills a member of the Endless, they return to resume their spot alongside their family. And yet, they are not entirely the same being they were before.

The Endless also change in appearance depending on who is looking at them. (Minus Destiny, who is almost always depicted as a blind man wearing a robe with a heavy book chained to him.) But Morpheus most often appears as a tall, thin, pale man with black-blue hair. His dark eye sockets also have glittering light and stars.

But to label him or any of the Endless as a specific race or species is to completely misunderstand what they are. (Same with calling their sister-brother Desire a man or woman. Desire is truly androgynous and can be one or the other from moment to moment, just as they can be neither and both, even at the same time.) The Endless have no cultural or racial identity, nor even any true form. They’re the same being whether they appear as a person or a cat. They belong to every living thing, for they are the Endless wherever life is found. And that includes on planets where life existed long before it did on Earth.

Bu how did Delight become Delirium, you might ask? Also, what does it mean to be Destruction? And what does Despair’s past tell us about The Sandman? Some questions should be explored rather than answered. Is that because they’re more fun to learn about on their own? Or because they are spoilers? Yes.

Okay, But What Is The Sandman Actually About?

There are two ways to answer that question. The first is to ruin the entire story, since it’s not clear what overarching tale Gaiman and the artists are telling until the very end. There’s an ultimate plot that ultimately ties everything together—even elements that seemingly had no connection to anything else—and it does so in an unexpected and moving way that instantly invites a re-read. But that’s only one reason telling you what The Sandman is about will ruin it. The other reason is because it’s not about a singular story at all.

That’s because at its core The Sandman is a story about stories. And great stories can exist simply for the sake of existing, not because they need to be part of something bigger. So while The Sandman ultimately arrives at a destination put in motion at the onset, it’s truly the journey to the end that matters. That journey hops around time, planets, dimensions, historical moments, mythology, and legend. It features characters from Lucifer and Angels to Shakespeare and Caesar Augustus, the Furies and Odin to fairies and witches, and anything else people have ever imagined. It features places both real and wondrous, as well as dreamy concepts come to life alongside nightmares made flesh. (Especially the Corinthian, who wears sunglasses to hide his true form… until your last moment.)

The Sandman is about stories of all kinds, and therefore it’s about everything everywhere. Often that journey involves visiting Morpheus’ The Dreaming and the real world. But you’re just as often to also travel to all the places in between, too. And while we can imagine what a trip to Hell might be like, some of those places are more of a feeling than an actual location. That’s why trying to easily distill what The Sandman is all about is to like trying to put a cloud in a jar. Only the jar might not actually exist. Or the cloud. Or you.

But that’s just the first way to answer the question. I’ll let Neil Gaiman himself tell you the second: “The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision.” You might prefer that far more pithy assessment, but Gaiman did note that “leaves quite a lot out.” And he ain’t kidding. He didn’t even mention Matthew the talking raven or Merv Pumpkinhead.

Is There Anything Concrete You Can Tell Me About The Sandman?

The canon (let’s be honest, retconned) reason the world of DC Comics had superheroes called Sandman before introducing Gaiman’s actual Sandman of legend is because Morpheus spent most of the 20th century imprisoned. The superheroes of the same name merely acquired some of his powers while he couldn’t use them.

During his imprisonment The Dreaming remained without its ruler and Morpheus’ castle and domain fell into disarray. Some sections of his realm vanished entirely. And a few of his subjects even went out on their own in direct defiance of their master. (Some with good intentions, others with nefarious motives.)

Without the King of Dreams around the mortal world suffered suffered greatly, too. Some individuals became trapped in their dreams, while the fates of others were so terrible they defy description. (But hoo boy do they make for an entertaining comic horror volume!) Because while the Endless can’t truly die, they can neglect their realms, which hurts every living thing. The Endless can get lazy, disillusioned, or even spiteful. One of Morpheus’ siblings completely abandoned their realm, too.

Morepheus’ time locked away is the start of this story and frames the entire world of The Sandman, even when that world starts exploring stranger places and ideas.

(If you’re still looking for even more specifics, though, check out everything we know about Netflix’s upcoming adaptation.)

So Is The Sandman a “Vibes” Story?

No. As you can tell, The Sandman is hard to explain in a traditional sense. It has to be experienced if you wish to fully understand it. But it’s so much more than just the feeling it evokes. It’s about what we want from life—both good and bad—and why. It’s about growth and living with the consequences of our decisions. And it’s about understanding how we make sense of existence with the stories we tell ourselves.

And for a moody, often dour, frequent pain-in-the-ass tangible manifestation of dreams come to life, Morpheus is far more human than he seems at first. Even though he wishes he wasn’t.

That’s why the best way to approach The Sandman is the same way you approach your dreams: let it come to you.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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After what seems like an eternity in limbo, Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel The Sandman has finally debuted a new teaser. The crowning moment of the first day of Netflix’s Geeked Week 2022, the teaser gives us a great look at Tom Sturridge as Dream, a.k.a. Morpheus, a.k.a. The King of Dreams. And not only do we see him, he looks exactly like he does in the comics. It’s definitely only a teaser, but we won’t have too long to wait. The series will debut on Netflix on August 5.

Sturridge looks perfect, but he’s certainly not the only big character we see in the teaser. We get to see a brief shot of Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, Morpheus’ kinder sister. I mean, yes, she’s the actual Grim Reaper, but she’s nice. Howell-Baptiste herself describes Death as “someone you’d like to have a beer with,” which is always the sign of a good Death.

We also see Lucienne the Librarian played by Vivienne Acheampong, looking perfectly studious. We get a few glimpses of the sprawling vistas of the the Dreaming, the mystical realm which Morpheus rules, plus a shot of Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer looking absolutely divine. Boyd Holbrook’s Corinthian with his bleeding eyes finishes us up.

Interestingly, the character who gets the most screen time in the teaser is Johanna Constantine, played by Jenna Coleman. Johanna is an ancestor of John Constantine, and similarly an occult detective. She’ll play both the character in 2021 and her own ancestor in the 18th Century. After seeing Coleman’s Clara Oswald try to become the Doctor during her time on Doctor Who, it’s outstanding to see her get to step into a similar, if gruffer role.

The cast for this show is truly massive and this teaser only shows us a few. But with a 12-episode run, they have plenty of Dream’s world, and his weird family, the Endless, to explore. August 5 can’t get here soon enough!

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Netflix’s Geeked Week is coming back again this year for lots of great reveals. The streaming service will drop new trailers, photos, posters, and other cool tidbits from June 6-10 for your nerdy pleasure. Of course there’s some looks back at popular shows like Stranger Things 3 and The Umbrella Academy’s second season. And we know those shows are coming back really soon with fresh seasons and infinite drama. But the new fun is starting already for those who are dying for more The Sandman content. The Netflix Geeked Week trailer gives us more glimpses of the Neil Gaiman fantasy series, including a great look at The Sandman character Lucifer. (You can spot it around the :50 mark.)

It’s about ten seconds of new footage but that’s all we really need to see, right? Intriguing darkness, swirling ominous sand, and glimpses of Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie as the titular character (also known as Morpheus) and Lucifer, respectively, are absolute gold.

Right now, the release date for this series isn’t known but perhaps that will be a part of the news during Geeked Week. They cannot give us everything at one time. We all know suspense makes people want to tune in even more. But it is certainly something wonderful to accompany the previous footage of The Sandman that we had before. And we are ready for much more of it as Geeked Week hits us with all the action. 

Previously, The Sandman’s official Twitter account asked fans to submit their questions for Geeked Week. That was a while ago but hopefully enough people got their inquiries in for some great reveals. Who will answer those questions? What will we learn? We can only wait and see. 

We have been summoned to this realm to dive into things unknown so let’s prepare for strange dreams, action, adventure, and an overall epic story.

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More Neil Gaiman-related entertainment is typically welcome news in these parts of the ‘net. As it stands, we’ve got the upcoming Sandman series and a second season for the delightful Good Omens. And now, happy tidings for all those who were sad to see American Gods go too soon. Gaiman’s 2005 novel Anansi Boys will spawn its own television project by way of Amazon.

Fans of the novel know that Anansi Boys tells the story of Charles Nancy, mortal-ish son of trickster god Anansi. (Better known in some circles as Mr. Nancy.) Though American Gods fans will recognize that name, the press release underlines the fact that the two series will not connect. Orlando Jones played Mr. Nancy on the aforementioned Starz series; according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jones will not embody the part on the Amazon show. In fact, it sounds like we shouldn’t expect any canonical crossover whatsoever.

Instead, the story will center on the younger Nancy finding out the truth of his origins; per the plotline of the novel, the milquetoast Charlie will forge a connection with his estranged brother Spider. Per Variety, Delroy Lindo will play Anansi/Mr. Nancy in the series. And joining Lindo to lead the series is British actor Malachi Kirby. The Small Axe star will play a dual role of Charles Nancy and his brother, Spider, as first reported in Variety.

CCH Pounder, Jason Watkins, and Fiona Shaw have too been cast in the series, per Deadline. Pounder will play Mrs. Higgler, a family friend to Charlie, while Watkins is Graham Coats and Shaw is Maeve Livingstone. Joining them are also “Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn as Rosie Noah, Grace Saif as Detective Constable Daisy Day,  L. Scott Caldwell as Mrs. Dunwiddy, Joy Richardson as Mrs. Bustamonte, and Lachele Carl as Miss Noles.”

In recent news, we also learned that Whoopi Goldberg will play Bird Woman in Anansi Boys. According to a release, Bird Woman embodies birds of all kinds, including dangerous ones. Whoopi Goldberg’s Bird Woman will likely act as Anansi’s foe in the series. Amazon shares:

Whoopi Goldberg has been cast as Bird Woman. She’s the embodiment of birds. Not just beautiful stately birds in flight. Anyone who’s had a close encounter with a seagull knows that some birds are more dangerous than others, and Bird Woman is the most dangerous of them all. Long ago Anansi did her wrong. Now may be her chance to turn the tables.

Additionally, casting has been revealed for a whole pantheon of Anansi Boys gods. The release offers more about each role:

Hakeem Kae-Kazim has been cast as Tiger. He’s still angry with Anansi for stealing the stories, for making fun of him, and for coming out on top. Tiger (it’s the name of any Big Cat in the Carribean) is a dangerous enemy to Anansi and all his bloodline.

Emmanuel Ighodaro will play Lion. He’s proud and noble and has no time for Anansi.

Cecilia Noble has been cast as Elephant. She’s old and wise, and hates Anansi.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson will play Snake. She’s beautiful and deadly and hates Anansi.

Don Gilet will play Monkey. He’s terrified of Anansi, keen on food—particularly fruit—and has the attention span of, well, a monkey…

Paramount+

Gaiman will serve as showrunner alongside Douglas Mackinnon. Writers include Gaiman, Sir Lenny Henry, Arvind Ethan David, Kara Smith, and Racheal Ofori. As for directors, we have names like Jermain Julien of Grandchester fame and Doctor Who’s Azhur Saleem.

Originally published on July 21, 2021.

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You’re likely already a fan of V.E. Schwab. Her adult fantasy novels have garnered the author a rightfully huge following. Titles like Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic put Schwab on the map, but the prolific author became a global sensation with the release of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. That fantastical tale enchanted readers everywhere. V.E. used to publish her young readers novels under the name Victoria Schwab, but her new novel Gallant marks the first time she’ll be publishing under V.E. And that’ll be what she’ll be publishing all her stories as from now on! And while Gallant will certainly find an audience with younger readers Schwab has hopes that it will appeal to readers of all ages like some of her favorite stories.

It’s a haunting tale of a young nonverbal girl named Olivia who moves into a strange new house named Gallant. The kind of book you can read in a single sitting, it will stay with you for far longer. To celebrate the book hitting shelves, we chatted with Schwab about horror, underworld stories, and the moment she can’t wait for readers to discover.

Nerdist: Could you tell me about the origin of Gallant?

Victoria Schwab: It took about five years. I think people think of me as a very prolific writer, and they don’t realize that I kind of work in a staggered system where each thing that I’m writing, I’ve been planning for a very long time. There’s a sequence that it all goes through where I’ll plan a book anywhere from a year to 10 years. So Gallant actually took that long because I thought I was writing a fairy tale. And it took me about three and a half years to realize I was writing an underworld tale. I kind of needed to understand what would be on the wall. So it took quite a few years to figure out exactly what the shape of the world that I was telling my story within was.

I knew I wanted to write a claustrophobic story, if that makes sense. I think setting is such a crucial character in a novel. I love creating settings that feel almost like miniature worlds unto themselves. So I wanted Gallant to feel claustrophobic in that way. I wanted it to feel not only like a main character, but also like a cage for the story. So it took me a little while for all of the pieces of it to come together. Olivia was always nonverbal. I knew I wanted to write a story that examines the shapes that a voice can take. So many kinds of disparate ingredients come together to make the meal that ends up being a book like Gallant.

I’d love to talk more about Olivia. I can’t recall reading many books with nonverbal leads, but I’m really glad you took that route with Olivia. So could you talk about that choice?

It was a challenge for several reasons. From a technical standpoint, I’ve always depended very heavily on dialogue. So writing a nonverbal protagonist obviously changes the shape of language and its relationship to the book. For that reason, I also chose to make the book in third person because I knew it would have an audiobook.

If I had the book in first person, while we would be closer to the voice in Olivia’s head, it also would mean that somebody would end up portraying that voice and rendering a nonverbal character inherently verbal. I didn’t want that. I thought it was really important—even though it creates a little bit of distance—to maintain the protectiveness of Olivia’s voice in that respect of the narrative, and to force you to understand that nonverbal doesn’t equal silence.

She absolutely has a voice. But I did want to look at the way in which having a voice that other people don’t necessarily hear or know how to engage with creates an extremely lonely environment, a sense of isolation. I think that you already feel that a bit as a teenager, especially the kind of teenager that I was.

You’ve spoken about the long journey to bring Gallant to life and about how Olivia was always going to be non verbal, so what came first? Building the story around Olivia or crafting Olivia to fit into the world you wanted to tell this story in?

It’s often difficult in retrospect to pick the two apart. I think we end up almost retconning our own process as creatives where something’s become very clear in retrospect. Like, I didn’t realize as I was writing Olivia that one of the reasons that I have her as nonverbal is that was a time in my life where I didn’t have the vocabulary for what I was going through. That time felt extremely exasperating. I was closeted, but I also didn’t realize that I was gay. So because of that, it was a challenge where I couldn’t figure out the language to tell other people in a way that they could hear. So you know, that’s a thing I realized after writing Olivia.

At the same time, trying to go back and dissociate Olivia from Gallant is really difficult. But I think that Gallant came first, because I knew that I wanted to build this house. I knew there was the house and I knew that there was the garden wall and I knew that there was a place beyond the garden wall. So I do think that Gallant as a place predates Olivia. But very early on in the process Olivia would have been paired with Gallant. It’s not as though Olivia maybe existed as a character and I was looking for the framework and put her in. Olivia kind of grew with the setting. They became very tangled. I think it’s a metaphor that only works if you read the book, but I don’t know which of them is the weed and which of them is the rose!

Speaking of Gallant as a location, could you tell me a little about the stories that inspired you when you were crafting the Gothic space? There’s definitely a little Secret Garden and some spooky British Boarding School books, but what else did you look to?

It’s interesting because I’ve always compared it to Crimson Peak meets The Secret Garden. I think The Secret Garden less from a narrative and more from a sheltering from the world sense. I grew up constantly looking for those little hidden microcosmic worlds. We’d go hiking and I would look at the stones that I was hiking on and try and find keyholes and try and find portals. So the part of The Secret Garden that appealed to me so much was really the secret of it. The idea of a hidden place within a place, the almost nested narrative of it.

I’m also very drawn to Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman. Writers who create—you don’t even want to call it horror, you want to call it like the quiet tension of frightening places. I’m not a fan of slasher films. I skew more towards Stephen King’s suspense than his horror. But I think there’s a frighteningness to lonely places. And I think what we’re really afraid of is being alone with ourselves. I think the claustrophobia of places is also the claustrophobia of our own internal landscape. That sounds so pretentious, but what I mean by that, I think this isn’t like a “Boo!” frightening book, right? It’s really about is what happens when you’re left alone. I think that loneliness and fear really go hand in hand.

As we come closer to the release of the book, is there a moment or page turn you’re really excited for readers to discover?

It’s gonna sound awful to say, but the very last page. That isn’t just a cheat to make people read the book! The thing is, I write my books in reverse, meaning the way that I know that I’m ready to start writing the book is when I have the ending. I don’t actually start writing a novel until I have not only an ending but the ending. 21 books in, none of my endings have changed. Whole books have been rewritten, page one rewrites, but the endings never change.

For me, the ending is that last bite at the end of the meal, it’s the culmination of everything. So much of what I’m doing over the course of the novel is to earn the ending. And the ending of Gallant is probably one that—of all of my books—I’m proud most of, because it was the thing I was writing to the entire time, and I feel like I earned it.

Gallant is currently available for purchase.

Featured Image: Greenwillow Books

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Sure, they thwarted the apocalypse but it seems Aziraphale and Crowley’s work isn’t done just yet. Prime Video has picked up Good Omens for a second season, taking the series beyond its source material. Yep, this means six more episodes of a very blonde Michael Sheen and fashionable goth David Tennant squabbling through London.

According to Prime Video, season two will follow Aziraphale and Crowley, now living back on Earth in London’s Soho neighborhood when an “unexpected messenger” interrupts their easy lives, pushing the two into yet another mystery. Neil Gaiman will return as executive producer and showrunner, and will write the series with John Finnemore.

Prime Video

News of a season two will certainly interest Gaiman and Pratchett fans. While the duo never wrote a follow-up to their beloved 1990 novel, they did have initial plans. In a press release, Gaiman spoke of his and Pratchett’s sequel plans and how they factor into the TV adaptation’s season two.

He said:

“It’s thirty-one years since Good Omens was published, which means it’s thirty-two years since Terry Pratchett and I lay in our respective beds in a Seattle hotel room at a World Fantasy Convention, and plotted the sequel. I got to use bits of the sequel in Good Omens—that’s where our angels came from. Terry’s not here any longer, but when he was, we had talked about what we wanted to do with Good Omens, and where the story went next. And now, thanks to BBC Studios and Amazon, I get to take it there.”

Here’s a first look at Sheen and Tennant back as Aziraphale and Crowley in season two.

Amazon Prime Video

Save a brief logline, season two is largely under wraps. However Gaiman did tease the upcoming season, saying, “There are so many questions people have asked about what happened next (and also, what happened before) to our favourite Angel and Demon. Here are the answers you’ve been hoping for. We are back in Soho, and all through time and space, solving a mystery, which starts with an angel wandering through Soho, with no memory.”

Returning cast include Paul Adeyefa, Michael McKean, Gloria Obianyo, Miranda Richardson, Maggie Service, Reece Shearsmith, and Nina Sosanya. Some of them will appear in new roles. However, Jon Hamm, is reprising his role of Archangel Gabriel, per Deadline. The series also cast a pair of new angels: Liz Carr as Saraqael and Quelin Sepulveda as Muriel. Shelley Conn will play a currently-unnamed character from Hell. Color us intrigued.

Additionally, Derek Jacobi, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, and Niamh Walsh are also returning, while Sian Phillips, Tim Downie, Pete Firman, Andi Osho, and Alex Norton are joining the cast. Deadline, which confirmed the castings, also revealed two Benedict Cumberbatch and Frances McDormand would not be reprising their season one roles.

An angel with no memory wandering Soho… color us intrigued! Season two has begun production in Scotland as of November 2, 2021. Amazon Prime Video hasn’t set a premiere date just yet.

Originally published June 29, 2021.

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Who Are the Dead Boy Detectives?

HBO Max

The darkly humorous Sandman #25 introduced Charles Rowland (Sebastian Croft) and Edwin Paine (Ty Tennant). The issue from Neil Gaiman, Matt Wagner, and Malcolm Jones III takes place in a desolate boarding school. When Charles becomes the only ward of the institution over the holiday season, he soon realizes something is amiss. The school becomes home to the ghostly alumni of years past, which puts Charles in grave danger. It’s here he meets Edwin Paine. While ghosts and ghouls terrorize Charles, Edwin supports him through his untimely death—and the hands of some cruel spirits—and then through his ghostly future. When Death—one of Sandman‘s beloved characters—shows up to take Charles away, he refuses. Instead, he and Edwin stay on Earth, becoming boy detectives of the dead variety.

How Do They Play Into the Rest of the DC Universe?

Vertigo Comics

Like a lot of the folks we see in Doom Patrol, the Dead Boy Detectives are a pretty deep cut. Compared to most of their screen mates, Charles and Edwin don’t have many appearances in comics but they still have a solid canon. After their debut in Sandman, the pair established themselves during The Children’s Crusade. Gaiman helmed the ’90s Vertigo crossover centered on the two ghostly PIs and their child counterparts. It’s also where they crossover with the Doom Patrol. Another of the kid characters from the crossover was Dorothy Spinner, the Chief’s daughter and current HBO Max Doom Patrol star.

Other than that, though, the Dead Boys are relatively isolated, which makes their intro to the Doom Patrol a pretty big deal. It’s especially exciting as they’re fan favorite characters, and the show gives them a chance to live outside of their few and far between comic book appearances.

Who Is Crystal Palace?

Vertigo Comics

When we meet the boys in the series, teen medium Crystal Palace joins them. While Crystal might not be an original member of the Dead Boys, she did debut in the comics prior to joining Doom Patrol. After gaining a cult fandom among Sandman readers and DC Comics diehards, the Dead Boy Detectives got a 2014 self-titled series by Mark Buckingham and Toby Litt. It was there that the duo met Crystal Palace Von Hoverkraft. Named after the London neighborhood and its local football team, she inadvertently became entangled with the boys after Charles saved her life during a performance art project by her own mother. Trying to find out more about the boys who saved her, she enrolled at the old school where they both died. That didn’t go too well for anyone, but it did cement the trio as a new iteration of the team.

What Does Their Arrival Mean for the Doom Patrol?

HBO Max

This is the biggest question. What we know after episode three is that Dorothy has left with the Dead Boy Detectives. She’s hoping that their connection to the underworld and Hell will enable her to find her father again. But Dorothy has been such a key character over the last season that we don’t think this’ll be the last we see of her. In fact, it’s pretty likely that her dangerous quest will leave her in dire need of her friend’s help. That, or we’ll see Dorothy and the Dead Boys come back to help the Doom Patrol if they get in trouble. The one thing we definitely know, though, is that the Dead Boy Detectives have a pilot order for their own show, complete with some reported casting information. So we’ll definitely be seeing more of the creepy child PIs on our screens soon.

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Hallelujah, it’s a glorious time to be a Good Omens fan. For one, we’re all still enjoying life. The Apocalypse having been averted after the Antichrist Adam Young elected not to destroy everything. Then in 2019, Amazon gave us a fantastic adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved novel. And earlier this year, we learned the show would return for a second season. We’re getting an all-new story about our favorite angel and demon best friends. But praise Heaven—or Hell—or maybe both?—the good news just keeps on coming. David Tennant and Michael Sheen are also returning to their roles as Crowley and Aziraphale for a new full-cast Good Omens audiobook.

HarperCollins has announced (in news we first heard at io9) an original audiobook production of Gaiman and Pratchett’s novel about an angel and demon working together to avert Armageddon. Sheen and Tennant, the stars of Amazon’s Good Omens series, will also headline the full cast recording. Additionally, Gaiman will contribute his voice to the recording as himself. And Rebecca Front will serve as the story’s narrator.

Sheen and Tennant are the only stars of the Amazon series reprising their roles for the audiobook. The rest of the audio cast includes Katherine Kingsley, Arthur Darvill, Peter Forbes, Gabrielle Glaister, Louis Davison, Pixie Davis, Chris Nelson, Ferdinand Frisby Williams, Adjoa Andoh, Allan Corduner, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Josh Hopkins, Lorelei King, Matt Reeves, and Lemn Sissay.

Amazon

Having any of the cast bring to life our favorite characters will be the perfect excuse to re-read the book. Again. (Not that we needed one.) And this will be a chance to hear some of our favorite characters not seen on the series come to life. We can’t wait to listen to the other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bickering over their own monikers.

You can get the Good Omens audiobook ($28.99) at HarperCollins starting November 2. It will also be available on other audiobook sites. So long as the Apocalypse doesn’t actually happen before then. We can’t wait to hear David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s voices again. Now we just have to find out more about the second season of the show.

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No, this is not a dream fans of The Sandman. It’s Dream himself. Netflix has shared the first teaser for its highly-anticipated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s iconic comic series. And just like on the page, Morpheus’s journey will start with a long imprisonment.

Netflix shared the first trailer for its upcoming The Sandman series as part of its TUDUM online event. Fans of Morpheus will instantly recognize this footage from the show’s premiere. It comes entirely from the first comic. This teaser focuses on Roderick Burgess’s failed attempt to summon Death. Instead he ends up with her much less friendly brother Dream. That won’t be good for anyone involved.

But even if you haven’t read the comic series, you can probably guess who this encounter will ultimately be worst for. All you need to know who is in real trouble is this shot. Imagine summoning this glare to your house? Especially so you can lock them up? You wouldn’t want someone to look at you like this on a bus.

Netflix

How many times do we have to say this? Do NOT mess around with an anthropomorphic embodiment of a powerful force in the universe. Especially one who exists for so long they’re known as one of the Endless. It’s “don’t get involved in a land war in Asia” on a cosmic level.

Tom Sturridge’s Morpheus won’t be locked in his cage forever though. Here’s the show’s official logline:

“The Lord of Dreams has been summoned, and captured, by mortal men. Once free from his captivity, this eternal ruler of Dreams will realize that his troubles are only just beginning.”

Netflix also put together a side-by-side video to highlight just how much this sequence follows Gaiman’s comic.

While this teaser focuses primarily on Charles Dance’s Burgess and his captive Dream, Netflix also released gorgeous triptych character posters on the show’s Instagram account. They introduce Morpheus and two of his Endless siblings. That includes his sister Death, played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, next to her symbol. And his sister-brother Desire, played by Mason Alexander Park, next to a crystal heart. And surrounding Dream is his helm (one of three tokens that will play important roles ins season one) and his raven.

When put together these The Sandman posters make for a striking tableau that captures both the beauty and terrifying power of the Endless.

Netflix

Of course, there are seven Endless. And we need posters for all of them. (Even if we’re unlikely to get one sibling’s for a long time. Don’t worry, you’ll eventually understand why.)

We can only imagine how good they’ll all look together. But like this show, we’d rather see it than have to dream about what it would look like.

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“For 32 years, anyone who read Sandman, read the comics—that world is ending.” Don’t worry about that quote from Neil Gaiman though. Because in this new behind-the-scenes video from Netflix’s The Sandman, the author promises the series “is Sandman being made for people who love Sandman by people who love Sandman.” He didn’t have to tell us that though. Seeing the show’s sets and props is proof enough. Especially if you have always wanted to see Morpheus’ tokens. Or dreamed of visiting a Cereal Convention.

As part of its first-ever virtual “Geeked Week,” Netflix has given fans of The Sandman a little taste of what’s to come with a behind-the-scenes video. It includes hearing from author and executive producer Neil Gaiman. As well as the show’s Lord of Dreams, Tom Sturridge, and its Lucifer, Gwendoline Christie. There’s no footage from the show here. But it doesn’t matter. There’s more than enough to satiate fans who are very anxious to see Dream on screen.

We get a glimpse at Morpheus’ three tokens: his bag of sand, elaborate helm, and the Dreamstone ruby. We also get to see Matthew the Raven. This Sandman character will come to life via animatronics rather than CGI. Also, that old book Gaiman flips through could be the Magdalene Grimoire, which Roderick Burgess used to ensnare Morpheus. And there’s even an unfinished version of Abel’s baby Gargoyle Goldie (real name Irving, of course).

Netflix

Obviously, we love the props. But it’s the show’s ornate sets that might be the most exciting part of this sneak peek. There’s the throne room where Lucifer meets with Dream in Hell. As well as what looks to be the infamous dungeon where Roderick and Alex Burgess kept the Lord of Dreaming for 70 years. And we even get to see the hotel ballroom where the sinister Cereal Convention takes place. (This gives us a better idea of just how much of The Sandman Volume 2, “The Doll’s House,” we will see in the show’s first season. Seems like it could be a lot.)

Neil Gaiman says he “can’t wait” until fans see The Sandman. Comic fans have waited for 32 years. Seeing this won’t make waiting easier. But it does make waiting seem worth it.

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In January, Netflix whet the appetites of Sandman fans with some exciting casting announcements for its developing Neil Gaiman adaptation. We got our Dream/Morpheus/Oneiros in Tom Sturridge; our Lucifer in Gwendoline Christie; our Roderick Burgess in Charles Dance. Yes, things got more exciting by the name. And now, we have a whole new batch of Sandman characters accounted for. Netflix has revealed the stars who’ll bring Death, Desire, Despair, and many more, to life!

First, Dream’s siblings. In the role of sensible sister Death: Killing Eve and The Good Place’s Kirby Howell-Baptiste. As the spiritually seductive Desire: Mason Alexander Park, known primarily for theater work to date. And as the emotionally fraught Despair: Donna Preston of The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of this new casting. Netflix has also announced Doctor Who vet Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, the 18th century’s enterprising adventurer. Next, we have mother and son Ethel Cripps and John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny. In these roles, we find Nip/Tuck’s Joely Richardson and Harry Potter and Wonder Woman’s David Thewlis.

Netflix

These characters help us bridge the gap to the second Sandman story, “The Doll’s House.” Netflix’s production on this arc is underway with more stars yet. At the center of this story, we’ll see Kyo Ra as Rose Walker, a young woman braving new terra to find her lost brother; Razane Jammal as Rose’s friend, and young widow, Lyta Hall; and Sandra James Young, as Unity Kincaid, the mysterious (and longtime comatose) figure who funds Rose’s journey.

It’s exciting to see Netflix’s Sandman production packing its cast with fresh young stars. However, it’s also a good deal of fun to welcome seasoned vets like Stephen Fry and Patton Oswalt. Fry will play Gilbert, who looks out for Rose on her journeys; Oswalt will voice Matthew, Dream’s emissary raven.

As we also know from the previous announcement: Boyd Holbrook will play the Corinthian; Vivienne Acheampong will play Lucienne; and Sanjeev Bhaskar and Amid Chaudry will play Cain and Abel. Now that the (nearly) full cast has taken shape, we’re more excited than ever for this new take on The Sandman.

Featured Image: DC Comics

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Starz has canceled American Gods, the network’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved fantasy novel, after three seasons. But don’t despair viewers, your prayers may be answered yet. The show could return for an event series or movie to finish the story.

THR reports that Starz has shut down the temple of American Gods due to a 65% decline in ratings since the show’s superb first season. The news comes just one week after the series completed its third, and now final, season. However, the network also said they are in discussion with producers from Freemantle. There is a chance for an event series or film to complete the story.

Starz

Viewers who have stuck with the show will be happy to get a finale of any kind. But it’s doubtful the show’s cancellation has surprised even them. Starring Ian McShane and Ricky Whittles, the series brought Neil Gaiman’s epic 2001 novel of the same name to the screen in a much anticipated adaptation. However, offscreen issues have marred the series since its first highly-rated season.

Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green left after season one. As a result of their departures, Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth also left. New showrunner Jesse Alexander was then replaced himself late into season two. Amidst all the upheaval, the show took a dive in both viewers and critical acclaim in the second season. Things really took a turn for the worse, though, when series standout Orlando Jones was fired just prior to season three’s production. Jones shared his issues publicly, in what proved to be the most controversial backstage story for a series that couldn’t seem to avoid them.

Starz

Those problems likely wouldn’t have mattered if ratings remained high. And they still won’t for viewers who are praying they really do get some closure to Shadow Moon’s journey through the world of gods.

Featured Image: Starz

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Dark Horse Comics isn’t stepping away from the world of Norse mythology tales. Nerdist can exclusively announce that they’ll be continuing their adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. The 2017 book retells a number of Nordic tales from the theft of Thor’s hammer to Loki’s adventures. Dark Horse Comics already shaped some of those stories into six comic books last year, and the Norse Mythology II miniseries will bring even more of the lore to the sequential page.

This time around the six-issue adaptation will tell of the wise god Kvasir, malicious dwarfs, and shady giants. Eisner winning comics legend P. Craig Russell is working on the comics alongside some impressive talent: artists Matt Horak (The Punisher, The Covenant), Mark Buckingham (Hellblazer, Miracleman), Gabriel Walta (Barbalien: Red Planet, Sentient), Sandy Jarrell (Archie, Meteor Men), and colorist Lovern Kindzierski (The Worst Dudes, The Sandman). David Mack is providing variant covers for each issue.

And speaking of, we also have an exclusive peek at the regular and variant covers for Norse Mythology II #1. Let’s start with the regular cover:

Dark Horse Comics

Now the variant:

Dark Horse Comics

In a statement, Russell said: “It has been an absolute delight working with the slate of artists assembled for our adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. Sending the artists the layouts and then seeing their finished pages come rolling back in, each having brought their own unique artistic vision to the page, has been great fun.”

Norse Mythology II #1 (of six) will be in comic shops on June 16. You can place your pre-order at your local comic shop now. And if you want to catch up on the first volume of Norse Mythology stories, you can pre-order a hardcover of Volume 1; it arrives on March 24.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist and the author of The Jedi Mind, available now. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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The day that fans of The Sandman have long dreamed of is finally here. After endless false starts, Neil Gaiman’s beloved comic book series is coming to the screen. Last July, Netflix announced it had begun developing a live-action adaptation of the fantasy series. Now, after another long delay, we know who will be joining the diverse cast. Tom Sturridge has landed a dream role of a lifetime as Morpheus. And he’ll appear opposite a couple of stars from another wildly popular fantasy show, Game of Thrones.

StudioCanal

Today, Netflix announced the first official cast members for its The Sandman series. Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio, Sweetbitter) will take on the titular role as the Lord of the Dreaming. Gwendoline Christie will join him as Lucifer, Ruler of Hell. As will another famous denizen of the Seven Kingdoms, Charles Dance. The former Tywin Lannister is playing Roderick Burgess, “charlatan, blackmailer and magician.”

Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) will join them as Lucienne, chief librarian and trusted guardian of Dream’s realm. Boyd Holbrook (Logan, The Predator) is playing The Corinthian. He’s “an escaped nightmare who wishes to taste all that the world has in store.” And Asim Chaudhry (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday) will star as Abel and Cain respectively. They are “the first victim and the first predator, residents and loyal subjects of the Dream Realm.”

The show’s official synopsis provides newcomers an idea of what they can expect from the series: “A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic—and human—mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.”

DC Comics

Gaiman, Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey’s Anatomy), and David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) will all serve as executive producers and co-writers on the series, which is being produced by Warner Bros. Television. Heinberg is also showrunner on the series.

In a statement, Gaiman talked about finally seeing his iconic DC comic come to the screen.

“For the last thirty-three years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head. I’m unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can’t wait until the people out there get to see what we’ve been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there. This is astonishing, and I’m so grateful to the actors and to all of The Sandman collaborators—Netflix, Warner Bros., DC, to Allan Heinberg and David Goyer, and the legions of crafters and geniuses on the show—for making the wildest of all my dreams into reality.”

Today is also a dream come true for the many fans who have been waiting a long time to see this happen.

The post Netflix’s THE SANDMAN Series Announces Its Cast appeared first on Nerdist.

If you are only familiar with Norse mythology through the lens of Marvel’s Thor comics and movies then you really only know half the story. Maybe not even half. Fantasy author Neil Gaiman explored those realms with his 2017 book Norse Mythology. And now, Gaiman has joined forces with Dark Horse Comics for a comic book adaptation. Several prominent comic book artists are on board to explore Gaiman’s version of the tales of Asgard and the Nine Realms.

This special Dark Horse Comics adaptation features iconic artists such as Jerry Ordway (Superman) Dave Stewart, and Lovern Kindzierski. And also: none other than Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. We have an exclusive preview of his contribution to Norse Mythology below. Take a look:

Dark Horse Comics

In the all new limited-edition Norse Mythology #1, Gaiman teams up with illustrator P. Craig Russell. The issue features an exclusive variant cover by the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz. This edition will only be available through Dark Horse Direct. Bill Sienkiewicz will hand sign 100 comics; those will be $59.99. Another 200 unsigned issues will be available for $49.99.

Dark Horse Comics

In a statement Gaiman said, “I fell in love with the Norse gods from reading about them in comics as a boy, so it’s only fitting that they return to the medium that started it. I cannot wait to see P. Craig Russell and his collaborators tell the old stories for a new generation.”

Subsequent installments of Norse Mythology, which will run a total of 18 issues, will feature a mix of major interior artists to be announced later.

Dark Horse Comics

After previously writing about deities in American Gods and The Sandman, Gaiman brings readers to follow the northern gods in their own setting in this adaptation. Gaiman and P. Craig Russell breathe new life into the ancient Norse stories by taking readers through the creation of the Nine Worlds. Witness the epic origin and adventures of Thor, Odin, and Loki all the way to the end of life:Ragnarök.

The Norse Mythology #1 Variant Comic Bundle will begin shipping to pre-order customers on October 30, 2020. For more information on how to get your copy, be sure to click here.

Featured Image: Dark Horse Comics

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Do you remember Jim Henson’s The Storyteller? The short-lived series is one of Henson’s best creations. It retold European folk tales in a live-action format with a combination of actors and puppets. The show is narrated by the titular storyteller, played by John Hurt. He sat before a fire and told these folkloric stories to his talking dog. The Storyteller originally aired in 1987. Later, The Jim Henson Hour featured some reruns from the series.

Maybe you didn’t see the show. Or maybe you’re a big fan waiting to see more of the beloved series (outside of Archaia’s Storyteller comics). Regardless of where you stand, you’re in luck, because a new version of The Storyteller is in the works. This time as an augmented reality (AR) experience. This innovative and groundbreaking continuation will come in the form of a trackable storybook. And instead of John Hurt, acclaimed author Neil Gaiman will narrate. (This follows previous reports that Gaiman was involved in a Storyteller reboot of sorts.)

The Jim Henson Company

Details are still scarce, but we do know that a demo of The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens will occur at the Siggraph virtual conference starting August 17, with a live Q&A the week of August 24 to discuss the project’s tracking module.

Here’s more about The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens from a press release about the project:

The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens is an extension of The Jim Henson Company’s popular franchise, that re-envisions folk stories, legends, and fables from around the world. In The Seven Ravens, a young girl sets out on an adventure to save her seven brothers from a curse that turned them into ravens. The AR book experience will allow people to interact with, explore, and re-explore the detailed and robust world of The Storyteller through the lens of The Seven Ravens tale.

Sounds pretty cool if you ask us! The Jim Henson Company and Felix & Paul Studios are producing The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens with the support from the Canadian Media Fund, Magic Leap Independent Creators Program, Epic MegaGrants, and SODEC Quebec.

We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Featured Image: The Jim Henson Company

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Fans of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman can’t even count down the days until Netflix‘s adaptation premieres. Sadly, production on the series is currently delayed because of COVID-19. It’s just the latest holdup for the project, as Hollywood has tried and failed to bring the beloved comic book series to the screen for years. But readers will still be able to enjoy the story in a new way: Audible has announced the first ever audio adaptation of the series will be released this summer. And it features an all-star cast.

The Sandman audiobook has amounted a truly worthy cast. X-Men star James McAvoy will voice the title role of Dream, a.k.a. Morpheus. Venom‘s Riz Ahmed will play the Corinthian. Thor‘s Kat Dennings will star as Death. Kingsman‘s Taron Egerton will play John Constantine. The Walking Dead‘s Samantha Morton voices Urania Blackwell. Cheers‘ Bebe Neuwirth will play the Siamese cat. Gollum himself Andy Serkis is taking on the role of Matthew the Raven. And Good Omens angel Michael Sheen will voice Lucifer. (Now that’s range!)

Other notable names in the massive cast also include Justin Vivian Bond, Arthur Darvill, William Hope, Josie Lawrence, and Miriam Margolyes. Gaiman himself will voice the narrator.

DC Comics

“When an occultist attempts to capture the physical embodiment of Death (Dennings) in a bargain for eternal life, he instead mistakenly traps Death’s younger brother Dream (McAvoy), another of the seven god-like siblings known as The Endless who oversee aspects of human existence, including Desire (Bond) and Despair (Margolyes), Destiny, Destruction and Delirium. After seventy years of imprisonment Dream finally escapes, embarking on a quest to reclaim his lost objects of power and rebuild his kingdom, the world of sleep and imagination called The Dreaming. So begins one of the most acclaimed and successful series of graphic novels ever written.”

The first installment of the “multi-part original audio drama series” will adapt the first three volumes of The Sandman. That includes “Preludes & Nocturnes,” “The Doll’s House,” and “Dream Country.”

The audiobook will debut exclusively at Audible on July 15, 2020. The English recording is available for pre-order. Eventually it will also be released in French, German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, and Latin American Spanish editions. We still don’t know how long we have to wait to see The Sandman on screen, but we couldn’t dream up a better way to pass the time until we do.

Featured Image: DC Comics

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Most of mankind is hunkering down at home and practicing safe social distancing. It’s the most effective way we can all protect each other from COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to stay indoors all day, every day. It’s exhausting. That’s why sometimes it feels like a demon is whispering into our ear, saying it would be fine to head to the beach. But that’s not what an actual demon wants us to do at all. Even Good Omens‘ Crowley is staying off the streets, despite being incredibly bored. We know because he told his old friend Aziraphale in a new “Lockdown” video written by Neil Gaiman and featuring the voices of Michael Sheen and David Tennant. It’s a social distancing celebration of the novel’s 30th anniversary.

Gaiman shared an all-new, timely video created for the anniversary of him and the late Terry Pratchett’s beloved novel. In it, Sheen and Tenant, the stars of the BBC and Amazon’s Good Omen series, return to voice the angel and demon who helped save the world from the Apocalypse. Like everyone else on Earth, they’re also dealing with COVID-19 restrictions, and stuck talking to their friends on the phone.

The active Crowley, predictably, is frustrated by not being able to go out. Despite being a demon, his boredom is not reason enough for him to break quarantine and cause mischief. As he said to his friend, “People might follow my bad example and get ill, even die.” Plus, everyone is so miserable now already, how could he make it any worse?

But Aziraphale has found quarantine suits him and his tastes very well. Literally. In addition to catching up on a lot of reading at his bookshop, he’s also been baking his way through many of his cookbooks. It’s easier when you can “miracle” any ingredients you need.

And even though they are both immune to disease and illness, Aziraphale wants to set a good example by staying away from his friend. We should really listen to him, too. The pair have literally lived through every plague that has ever happened. There are no greater experts on how to survive a pandemic.

Amazon

We do wish we could take after Crowley in one way. We’d love to close our eyes and take a nap until July.

Featured Image: Good Omens

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The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s epic comic book classic The Sandman is going to have to wait a while longer to see the light of day. This according to Gaiman himself, who recently explained on his Tumblr account that the production has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In keeping with a show about the dreamworld we inhabit once we sleep, Gaiman described the show as currently “hibernating.”

“The scripts for the first season are written, casting had started, directors hired, sets were being built. Everything was ready to go into production, and then we moved into a pause. As soon as the world is ready to make TV drama, Sandman will move smoothly back into being made. In the meantime, we are taking the opportunity to get the scripts as good as we can.”

DC Comics

Honestly, The Sandman is simply in the same boat as every other television and film production right now. Hopefully, it won’t be more than a few months before they can get the ball rolling again. It’s interesting to note that casting is apparently underway; we have heard nothing about a potential actor to fill the role of Morpheus. Hopefully we’ll discover who is going to rock that Robert Smith from the Cure hairdo sooner rather than later, even if filming is delayed.

An adaptation of Sandman has long gestated in Hollywood. One version a few years back was going to be a feature film starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. Fans always wanted a long-form television adaptation instead however, as the mythology of The Dreaming that Gaiman created is too intricate and complex for a two hour film. The series is being showrun by Allan Heinberg, who created Marvel’s Young Avengers comic book series, as well as co-wrote the Wonder Woman film. Joining him will be The Dark Knight and Man of Steel’s David S. Goyer.

Featured Image: DC Comics

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The Sandman will arrive this summer as a multi-part Audible Original.  Dirk Maggs, the man behind the audio dramas for Good Omens and Anansi Boys, will direct. They haven’t announced the voice cast for this project yet. We expect to hear some high profile names lending their vocal talents.

DC Comics

Gaiman himself will serve as the new audio drama’s creative director, executive producer, and its narrator. Maggs will fill the roles of executive producer, writer and director. The Sandman will showcase an original score by award-winning composer and musician James Hannigan. It will be based on the first volume of the series, “Preludes and Nocturnes.” The Sandman ran for ten volumes total. Additionally, the story will reference other notes and script pages from Gaiman. Read the series’ official description below:

“When an occultist attempts to capture the physical embodiment of Death in a bargain for eternal life, he instead mistakenly traps Death’s younger brother Morpheus, the King of Dreams. After his seventy-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Morpheus goes on a quest to reclaim his lost objects of power and rebuild his realm. From there, one of greatest and most successful series of graphic novels ever written begins. Celebrated globally for its vibrant blend of modern myth and dark fantasy—which seamlessly interweaves contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend—The Sandman follows Morpheus, and the people and places he’s affected, as he tries to mend the cosmic and human mistakes he’s made during his Endless existence.”

DC Comics

In an official statement, Gaiman said the following of this new interpretation of one of his most celebrated works:

“Almost 30 years ago, Dirk Maggs approached DC about adapting The Sandman into audio form. It didn’t happen (although it was how Dirk and I first crossed paths) and I’m glad it didn’t happen, because we are in a Golden Age of audio drama right now, and Dirk and I are much better at what we are doing. This is a rich audio adaptation of The Sandman graphic novels, brilliantly crafted by Dirk Maggs, with an all-star cast. I’ve loved being there to talk casting, there to read the scripts and offer occasional advice, and there in the studios, watching magic get made and recording the narration. I can’t wait until the world hears what we’ve done.”

The official description indicates the audio drama looks as if it is sticking close to the classic source material. Given that comics are such a visual medium, it will be interesting to see how they present this story in an audio only format. We’re also curious to see who fills the coveted roles of Dream, Death, Delirium, and the rest of the Endless. This is one project we are looking forward to when it arrives later this year.

Featured Image: DC Comics

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting a whole lot weirder this November with the introduction of The Eternals. Who is this mysterious superteam and how will they affect the MCU? Join Dan Casey on a brand new episode of Explainiac as he dives into their wild comic book history.

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In the wake of his firing, Jones took to social media to blast the show’s producers, and offered even more clarification on to just what went down in an interview with Variety. You can see his original Twitter announcement about his firing from American Gods down below:

One correction: I was fired September 10th 2019. https://t.co/sYiEgAjAby

— Orlando Jones (@TheOrlandoJones) December 14, 2019

After appearing in a smaller capacity in the show’s first season, Jones appeared in an expanded role in the second year. According to Jones, his role on the show actually went significantly beyond acting in season two, as he was also asked to contribute to the production and writing side of things. This in addition to playing Mr. Nancy in front of the camera. But now, according to Jones himself, he’s been fired from the show ahead of its third season. In his own words, he “got screwed over” by the production company Freemantle, and although he didn’t name names, the show’s current showrunner Charles Eglee.

Starz / Freemantle

In the interview, Jones talks about his expanded duties on season two, saying that Neil Gaiman himself asked him to create a character bible for Mr. Nancy. This is what ultimately led to his becoming a consulting producer during the second season, writing for other characters on the show. In particular, the characters of color. Because of this expanded role during season two, he was fully expected to return for a third season, and got blindsided by his dismissal. It’s also a bad look for American Gods that Mousa Kraish, who played the part of the LGBTQ Arabic god Jinn, also revealed that he was let go.

Starz / Freemantle

Freemantle issued a statement, saying “The storylines of American Gods have continually shifted and evolved to reflect the complex mythology of the source material. Mr. Jones’ option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within season three. Several new characters, many of which have already been announced, will be introduced into Shadow Moon’s world that will further contribute to the show’s legacy as one of the most diverse series on television.”

But Jones doesn’t mince words on what he believes is the ultimate reasoning for his being let go, saying “He [presumably Charles Eglee] told everybody that he wrote from the black male perspective, told everybody that he thought Nancy was bad for black America.”  The character of Mr. Nancy made his debut on the series’ second episode, in an amazing scene where he told the truth about the evils  of American slavery to the ship’s  enslaved passengers and incited them to rebel. The clip of the show went viral, particularly embraced among the show’s African-American fans. But it seems that Mr. Nancy’s fiery attitude was something that made the producers uncomfortable.

Starz / Freemantle

This is the latest in a long string of behind-the-scenes drama for the Starz adaptation of the beloved Neil Gaiman novel. The show was first developed by Hannibal series creator Bryan Fuller and his partner Michael Green. After an amazing first season, the pair left the series. And with the show’s two creative heads gone, so too went actors Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth.  Jesse Alexander was then announced as co-showrunner for the second season, but he was removed as well in September 2018. Without a showrunner and heading into season two, producing director Chris Byrne and Lisa Kussner were running things. Ultimately, American Gods season two ended up premiering a full two years after this first season.

Neil Gaiman’s original plan was for the show to go five seasons, but if this kind of creative turmoil continues, it will be hard to see it even getting to a fourth at this point. Hopefully, someone out there can right this ship.

Images: Freemantle / Starz

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Marilyn Manson is no stranger to acting, even going back to his ’90s MTV heyday. He first appeared in a “blink and ya miss it” role in David Lynch’s Lost Highway, a movie for which he contributed music to. Not a bad way to start one’s acting career though. He has since appeared in several movies and television series, most recently having played a part in Sons of Anarchy. Of course, having Manson play the lead singer of a death metal band is maybe the height of typecasting, but you’re probably not going to cast Marilyn Manson as a local preschool teacher.

American Gods has had a lot of behind-the-scenes turmoil since first airing in 2017. Original developed by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green for the Starz network, both creators left the show due to creative differences at the end of season one. Jesse Alexander then took over as showrunner for the second season, but has also departed the show. For season three, Charles “Chic” Eglee from The Walking Dead has become the new showrunner. However, original American Gods writer Neil Gaiman has remained a part of the series since its inception.

American Gods’ third season is set to premiere on Starz sometime in early 2020.

Images: YouTube / TCB PR

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Readers desperately hope/pray/demand their favorite characters, places, and scenes make the cut any time a beloved novel gets adapted for the screen. Often though those recreations fail to live up to the enormous expectations fans have for them. That wasn’t the case when American Gods visited the most memorable locale from Neil Gaiman’s novel, the very real attraction known as The House on the Rock. That absurd and magical piece of Americana in Wisconsin wasn’t just everything we always imagined; it was somehow even more amazing. Now explore its incredible history and the important role it played on the show in a featurette from the home release of the show’s second season, as Neil Gaiman and the cast explain why the gods themselves would hold their most important meetings there. And we have your exclusive first look at it.

In this behind-the-scenes video, Neil Gaiman, Ian McShane, and Ricky Whittle discuss what it was like to film at a place that didn’t seem like it could possibly exist based on its description in the novel. It is most certainly real though, and even wilder than we thought it would be, possibly. As Ricky Whittle points out, because Neil Gaiman had to tone it down for the book to make it more believable.

Readers have been waiting to visit this strange tourist attraction since 2001. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait that long on the show. After The House on the Rock teaser in the season one finale, the season two premiere took us to the site of Alex Jordan Jr.’s larger-than-life building full of oddities, which first opened in 1959. It was worth the wait.

We always want to see the best parts of our favorite books make it to the screen, but it’s not often those moments are as good as we always hoped they would be.

The second season of American Gods comes to Blu-ray and DVD on August 20.

Featured Image: Starz

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Studio Ghibli is a beloved and lauded company for a reason. They have a standard for quality in story, visuals, and heart that few studios in any medium can boast. All of co-founder Hayao Miyazaki’s films are classics the world over. And there’s a couple reasons for that: 1) they’re very good, and 2) they’ve had good luck with distribution deals outside of Japan. Arguably Miyazaki’s best film (and it’s a real argument) is 1997’s Princess Mononoke, which was distributed in America at the time via Miramax. Miramax had a lot of clout in the ’90s, enough to hire a big-name writer to write the English voice dub. That writer is Neil Gaiman, and you probably never knew that.

I often forget it myself. While the late-90s English language dub boasts performances from Gillian Anderson, Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thornton and others, a lot of anime purists will tell you any English dub is inferior to the original Japanese. But without Miramax, maybe we wouldn’t have seen Mononoke over here when we did. So it’s a double-edged sword. At any rate, Gaiman’s name should have been a big selling point. But according to the man himself in a recent Twitter post (h/t io9), Miramax took his name off the poster…to make sure theirs was on it.

My biggest secret. (Studio Ghibli asked for some of the Miramax execs to be removed from the poster and credits. The execs looked at all the names, determined that theirs would remain, and realised that mine was contractually expendable.) https://t.co/fm7BRFpp1W

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 12, 2019

Now, we obviously don’t need to reiterate all of the many reasons former Miramax head Harvey Weinstein is a subhuman sludge pile. He was, however, certainly infamous for getting the distribution rights for Asian films and cutting them to pieces. In one of the more famous anecdotes surrounding Mononoke‘s acquisition, Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki mailed a samurai sword to Weinstein with a note saying “No Cuts”. Though this had to have annoyed Ol’ Harv something fierce, Princess Mononoke was indeed released uncut. However, the Japanese language script contained some references and context that Western audiences just wouldn’t get. Hence Gaiman’s participation; the American Gods and Stardust author created a script that certainly changes some of the meaning of the words, but holds on to the crux of the story as a whole.

Yet, because Harvey, his brother Bob Weinstein, and producer Scott Martin wanted their names on the poster, Gaiman’s wasn’t. Miramax as a company even got top billing over Studio Ghibli. Gaiman’s name does appear in the credits, but leave it to some glory-gobblers like the Weinstein brothers to think they’re more important than either the writer or the actual filmmakers.

Image: Studio Ghibli

Kyle Anderson is the Editor at Large for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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Hollywood has tried—and failed—to turn Neil Gaiman’s best-selling DC comic series The Sandman into a movie for a long time now. So long that the story of the many (many) unsuccessful attempts to bring it to the big screen earned a chapter in author David Hughes’ book Tales From Developmental Hell. Like lots of other popular books with unique stories, that of the life of Morpheus—the living embodiment of dreams themselves—seemed impossible for any studio to successfully adapt into a two-hour film without sacrificing what made it so good in the first place. But its nuance and complexity might be perfect for a television show, and that’s the route Netflix is taking as it finally brings Neil Gaiman’s beloved story to life.

The streaming site announced (in news we first heard at Variety) that it has ordered an 11-episode first season (though they are calling it “10+one”), which will see Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg serve as showrunner, executive producer, and writer on the series. Both Gaiman and David S. Goyer (writer of Batman Begins and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) will also write for the show and serve as producers; the three will co-write the first episode of the series.

On Twitter, Gaiman has already given some more background and answered fans’ questions about the series and the writing process, including how it will be set 30 years later than the comic series.

I’m hoping we can make something on television that feels as personal and true as the best of the Sandman comics did. Just set thirty years later than Sandman the comic. https://t.co/Wy8y4aDbdE

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 1, 2019

No, I will indeed be cowriting the pilot.

In Variety it stated that David Goyer and I had written a Sandman movie script together in the past. This is an imaginary thing. https://t.co/ymFeazQV43

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 2, 2019

The first season will be eleven episodes. That’s the start of it all. Preludes and Nocturnes and a little bit more. https://t.co/tOlfJ1kS1y

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 2, 2019

No, we’re making Sandman. Not reinventing it. https://t.co/M4lJoCG42P

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 2, 2019

Just clarifying. No Sandman TV scripts have been written yet, by anyone for any reason. The @jackthorne script was a movie script from 4 years ago. https://t.co/mDKjdOlSvp

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 2, 2019

You’re not dreaming, Sandman diehards; this is really happening. The hope for an adaptation is finally out of developmental hell, and it looks like the plan is to tell the entire story from the very beginning. (Something that was never going to happen with a movie.)

Featured Image: DC Comics

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We asked Neil Gaiman, David Tennant, Michael Sheen and more stars of Good Omens about their thoughts on the internet feverishly shipping their characters, the apocalypse, and much more.

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SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Amazon’s six-part adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is everything you’d want it to be, whether you’ve read the novel or not.

The story of an angel and a demon teaming up to stop the young Antichrist from bringing about Armageddon is a funny, fast-moving, exciting morality tale about the dangers of absolutism. It’s also something you might not expect it to be though – an incredibly moving story of two supernatural beings’ and their unlikely friendship that speaks to the best of what it means to be human.

At the heart of the story, and the driving force for why Good Omens is consistently entertaining and will likely prove so re-watchable, are Michael Sheen’s angel Aziraphale and David Tennant’s demon Crowley. Each has been Heaven and Hell’s representatives on Earth since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, and they’ve spent 6,000 years working against, around, and sometimes with one another as each has become more “native,” growing more and more fond of the best (and worst) mankind has to offer.

Tennant steals every scene he is in, as his Crowley feels like it crawled straight from the page to the screen in one of the most perfect character adaptations you’ll ever see. Whether he’s saying something clever or poignant, smooth-talking a fellow agent of Hell to avoid getting in trouble, or merely walking, he fully embodies a charming, not-so-bad demon who is having way too much fun on Earth.

But Sheen is his equal as Aziraphale. His ever-worried angel might not be as much fun to play, but his role might also be more challenging. He keeps his angel likable even as he’s constantly weighed down by the annoying desire to be wholly good. The show’s two leads are so fantastic you might sometimes find yourself wondering when you can rejoin them, but that speaks to their performances and not the rest of the wonderful cast.

The great Michael McKean is, no surprise, hilarious as the curmudgeonly Sergeant Witchfinder Shadwell, and Miranda Richardson is genuinely delightful as his kind neighbor, “the Jezebel” Madam Tracy. Adria Arjona, who plays Anathema Device, the descendant of Agnes Nutter, a witch wrote the only accurate book of prophesies in history, doesn’t get to be funny often. However, Arjona’s nuanced performance does keep the action of the story moving along while also adding some very poignant elements to the idea of what it means to live your own life. Jake Whitehall’s lovable loser Newt Pulsifer, whose ultimate role in the show is among the series most satisfying, might be the biggest surprise though, as he manages to be sincerely delightful and overly hilarious without ever seeming like he’s trying to be either.

Our biggest complaint is we didn’t get to spend more time with them, or with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who show up for the end of the world. But the biggest issue is that the show doesn’t devote more time to the Antichrist himself, Adam Young. His transformation from child into the Devourer of Worlds is (duh) a big deal, as are his group of fellow pre-teen friends, a hilarious group known as The Them. They are integral to both his story and the bigger ideas Good Omens is dealing with. The weight of Adam’s decisions carry the literal fate of the entire world, and the major influence his friends play in his life, as well his love for his home town and parents, would have benefited from a deeper exploration.

It’s certainly not a fatal flaw, and it might be one more apparent to book readers than newcomers to the story, but it might have been worth risking some of the mid-season pace (the show constantly picks up steam on the way to the end of the world) to take some more time with The Them. Good Omens could have easily been an eight-part series, and if it had it would probably be even funnier and perhaps even more touching, at least when it came to Adam’s story.

The other major cuts from the novel include many of the smaller, funnier, less important moments from the book. This is a far more faithful adaptation than most, which is no surprise since Neil Gaiman himself wrote each episode and served as showrunner, but you’re either going to miss the other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or will need to read the novel to find out why book readers are so disappointed they weren’t included. In the end, though, sacrificing some of the comedy doesn’t hurt the show, because while Good Omens is still incredibly entertaining from start to finish, it proves to be a moving tale that is both timely and timeless. It’s a fantastic and fun story about friendship, being a good person, and what it means to enjoy life, and it does that while managing to seamlessly weave together multiple plot lines into a coherent and satisfying conclusion.

The series is far more direct than the book with its themes about the similarities/inherent perils of ultimate bad and ultimate good (in large part thanks to a superb Jon Hamm as the eager-for-war Archangel Gabriel, representative of a Heaven that isn’t very different from Hell), and how life is only meaningful (and fun) because of both. But that directness works on a TV series in a way that would feel too heavy-handed on the page.

Life on Earth is messy, it doesn’t make sense, and it’s not always clear what the right or wrong thing to do is. But even if the Apocalypse is here, it’s not so bad if you have someone to share it with. Or in the case of two old friends, an angel and a demon who have found a common reason to prevent it – each other.

Images: Amazon

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Repent! Repent! The Apocalypse is nigh! And so is Amazon’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s tale of Armageddon, Good Omens, where the end times start with the birth of the most adorable little Antichrist ever. Now, to bring their Devil-loving music to the masses, the most talkative group of Satan-worshiping nuns in the world have released their own music video celebrating the arrival of their little Dark Lord, who comes with fire, blood, and that new baby smell.

When the ground below rips open and darkness fills the skies above, the streets and rivers will run with blood of the innocent and guilty alike, as Heaven and Hell will meet on the battlefield for a final showdown. Unless of course the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon can stop the whole bloody mess from happening, in the upcoming adaptation of Good Omens. But as readers of the beloved novel know, not everyone on Earth is eager to stop it.

The Chattering Order of St. Beryl, who helped bring the Antichrist into the world (and also helped mess up Satan’s grand plan eeeever so slightly), have been welcoming the coming of the end with song. Now to spread their demonic gospel they have released a music video for their hymn, “That Brand New Baby Smell.” And they got a very special someone to make a cameo.

We meant Neil Gaiman was the special someone, not Becky the Goat. (Good job on naming that demon goat, internet!)

As for this sweet/sinister a cappella song, which features some great Easter eggs from the novel, they might worship the Devil, but The Chattering Order of St. Beryl sound like angels. Of course this is now going to be stuck in our head for weeks, which is probably what they wanted.

As if worrying about the end times wasn’t already hard enough without an earworm. Though that’s better than the actual worms we’ll probably have in our ears during the Apocalypse.

Good Omens comes to Amazon Prime on May 31.

Featured Image: Amazon Prime

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I walked along the edge of Hudson river; a chill wind cutting through my jacket and rushing my steps. I was on my way to a haunting. My own haunting to be exact.

I had been invited to Story Arcade, a showcase of eight exciting technological exhibits, culminating in a virtual reality experience called Chained, which is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Story Arcade is a project run by The Future of Storytelling, a community of people involved in media, technology, and communications who are developing new ways to tell stories in the digital age. I sampled a few of the offered experiences and I can say with confidence, each exhibit is unique and compelling.

The first VR experience I encountered was Jurassic Flight gives you the chance to fly through a pre-historic landscape through the use of a full-body robotic “motion platform” paired with active airflow. You lay down on the machine, feet propped up behind you and arms splayed out over the flaps that act as your wings. With the VR headset on and the simulated wind in your hair, you dive in, quite literally. Awkward at first, it is amazing how quickly your body adjusts to the idea of flapping your arms to keep from falling. Within a minute I was gliding over waterfalls and dinosaurs as I skimmed treetops and narrowly avoided crashing into rock outcroppings.

Next up was a piece based on the work by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Wolves in the Walls is a VR exhibit where you interact with a young girl named Lucy, who wants to capture evidence of the predators that prowl behind the walls of her home. The animation on this piece reminds me of Pixar films; beautifully rendered and infusing a life and personality into the character that makes her believable. Unlike a film where you are nothing more than an observer, with Wolves in the Walls you get to interact with Lucy as she hands you her Polaroid and asks you to take some shots while she listens for the scratching and growling of wolves. This short piece makes excellent use of lighting and and sound to transport you into Lucy’s world.

Algorithmic Perfumery is something completely different. By asking you a bevy of questions that relate to personal preferences and how you see yourself, an AI system calculates and then crafts a personalized scent for you. The AI system that adapts and learns from every exchange and thus gets better about matching particular scents to personalities. I had my doubts, but Algorithmic Perfumery managed to create a light, fresh perfume that I was pleasantly surprised by.

The oddest exhibit I saw was Cosmic Sleep. It aims to simulate what it would feel like to be a comet traveling through space through the use of a multi-sensory installation. You lie under what looks like a giant electric blanket that emits different temperatures as you coast through space while your face is presented with a series of scents intended to help deepen your experience.

My evening rounded out with a soft-spoken attendant leading me to the door to Chained. The experience is a fully immersive VR play where you become the main character. Once a ghost has properly prepared you for a visit to the “other side” (by strapping on your VR helmet) you’ll be dragged across the threshold of life and death by the ghost of Jacob Marley. Bedecked in chains and warning you of what may come, Marley asks you a series of questions. Your answers become part of the story, making the feel more real and extra creepy. Just like A Christmas Carol, the rest of the performance has you meeting the ghosts of the past, present, and future as they try to guide you away from the fate you have crafted for yourself, but what separates Chained from any other play or VR experience I have ever seen is that the ghosts are “real”.

No, not in the incorporeal way, but in the fact that there is a live actor in a motion capture suit in the room with you. That means when a ghost puts a hand on your shoulder, you feel it. If you are offered an apple, you can actually grab it. The mixture of the VR imagery overlaid with the tactile reality, makes everything that much more real feeling and by the time you meet Present’s “guests” you may find yourself trying to back away from their horrifying little faces even though you know they’re not real. I won’t spoil anything more, but I can safely say that Chained is a personalized and creepy experience that haunt me for quite a while.

All of the exhibits were exciting, thought-provoking, and fun and I’ve only touched on a few of them. There are plenty of other fascinating things to explore in the Story Arcade and these works are just a sampling of the many exhilarating projects that the Future of Storytelling supports in their quest to discover new heights in technologically assisted communication. The Story Arcade pop-up will run through April 21, 2019. For more info about the exhibit, visit Futureofstorytelling.org and make sure to use the Code: GEEKNSUNDRY to get 30% off tickets.

What next technological advancement in storytelling would you want to see next? Perhaps a holodeck. We’re holding out for a holodeck. Let us know in the comments below!

WANT MORE VIRTUAL REALITY FUN?

• Chronicles of Crime is the Detective Game That Blends Tabletop and VR
• The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule has Been Recreated in VR
• Watch Pearl: The First VR Animated Short to Earn an Oscar Nomination

Image Credits: Jessica Fisher, The Future of Storytelling

Hailing from New York, Jessica Fisher is a writer, artist, and all around geek. In addition to Geek & Sundry, she writes for Gameosity.com and produces the Gameosity Reviews Youtube Channel. Find her talking about all things geeky on Twitter as @miniktty.

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At this point, we’re just counting down the days until Good Omens lands on Amazon Prime Video. The cast—which boasts Michael Sheen, David Tennant, and Jon Hamm—is perfect; the first trailer looks excellent; it’s a Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett story; and it’s clear that Amazon is thrilled with the talent and quality they have on their hands. That was evident at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, which played host to a Good Omens activation during its opening weekend that was truly out of this world.

Nerdist attended an exclusive press preview of the Garden of Earthly Delights on the opening day of the festival, a magical, walled-off section of downtown Austin that felt like stepping right into another realm. Angels greeted us at the gates, and right away the giant Good Omens logo marked our arrival.

The Garden of Earthly Delights was loaded with different ways to pamper yourself to distract from the impending end of the world. Highlights included the Hellhound Puppy Pen, a tented area where you could pet, hold, and interact with tiny puppies currently available for adoption from the Austin Animal Center. Look at these little rascals!

The Garden also had stations dedicated to hairstyling, hand massages, and manicures, so you could sit down, relax, enjoy a selection of free beer or wine, and take in the music wafting through the activation, provided by a band of angels playing harps and strings. All beauty cabanas were provided by butterLONDON, Cosmedix, and SexyHair.

Of course, every time you would start to feel settled, something would come interject to remind you that you were still at a party for Good Omens, meaning the apocalypse was ever nigh. A cultish group of sign-carriers would occasionally walk by shouting things like “the end is nigh!” and asking if you were prepared for inevitable death. At one point, a gang of leather-clad motorcyclists ushered in the Four Apocalyptic Horsemen.

Other delights at the Garden included a replication of the A.Z. Fell & Co. bookstore and a life-sized model of Crowley’s 1926 Bentley that visitors could sit in for photos. All in all, it was one of the most exciting places to be during the opening weekend of SXSW, and an impressive effort from Amazon Prime to continue to drum up excitement for Good Omens. If the final results is anything like the activation, the show is destined to be an apocalyptically great time.

Images: Amazon Prime Video 

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We’re just a few months shy of the debut of Amazon Prime’s Good Omens and promotion is starting to ramp up. Our first big glimpse at the show, based on the beloved Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett fantasy novel, will be happening in just two weeks at the SXSW festival in Austin.

Amazon is planning a series of events to promote the show, including a walk through of the Garden of Earthly Delights, an interactive feature that transports guests into the world of the book. Fans will enter through a massive winged hourglass on Driskel Street and into a space surrounded by lush foliage, where they will be greeted by angels and demons. The free event will also offer guests a selection of beer and wine served from a massive 20-foot tree, relaxing lounges where they can receive manicures and hairstyling, a pop-up bookshop, and a Hellhound Puppy Pen filled with furry friends from the Austin Animal Center.

The Garden of Earthly Delights will also host a series of parties over the course of the opening weekend starting March 8, like an Entertainment Weekly party featuring a Queen cover band and a BuzzFeed party featuring musician Dan Deacon and a DJ set from Questlove.

But that’s not all the Good Omens-themed goodness Amazon has planned for SXSW. Guests can also attend a conversation with author Neil Gaiman, who is also executive producing the series, as well as Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate SXSW Event, where the cast and crew will share never-before-seen clips from the series, followed by a Q&A. Gaiman and director Douglas Mackinnon will be in attendance, along with stars David Tennant, Michael Sheen, and Jon Hamm.

If you’re a Good Omens fan who will be in Austin this March, you’re in luck! Tickets are still available for SXSW on the official website. The event begins March 8, and the Garden of Earthly Delights is open March 9 to 11.

Images: Amazon Prime

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Our only worry with Amazon’s adaptation of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is the world will end before it premieres on May 31. If the Apocalypse can’t be averted before then, at least we got to see the show’s fantastic opening title sequence: an animated cut-and-paste sequence that features our favorite angel and demon trying to stop Armageddon. Here are some of the best Easter eggs we spotted on the march to the end times, along with our favorite moments and gags.

(Warning: This post contains spoilers from the novel.)

It all starts at the literal beginning, as Aziraphale and Crowley are on hand for the creation of the Earth.

From there, they head through the Garden of Eden, where Aziraphale guarded the Eastern Gate and Crowley (known as Crawly at the time) played the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve. The little red-haired mohawk man who grabs the apple from the all-seeing Tree of Knowledge might be Crowley in his old serpentine form. Also following them are two nuns in black, a nod to the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, the talkative satanists who botched the switch of the Antichrist.

Crowley’s temptation led to Adam and Eve being kicked out of paradise, seen here, which is where the novel actually begins.

The unlikely friends then stop for a drink. This is one of the funniest moments in the novel: they get drunk and lament the end of the world they enjoy so much. This is also where they come up with their plan to work together and stop the apocalypse.

Next we see each supernatural beings’ favorite thing: Crowley’s black 1926 Bentley (which is obviously full of Best of Queen tapes) and Aziraphale’s book shop, which has already gone up in flames.

The next sequence shows the ever-growing line of weird people and creatures walking past Noah’s Ark. At the back, we see one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (and one of the best characters in the book), Death himself.

At the front, near the escalator that seems to be going towards Heaven, is a strange monster. Could this be Crowley’s true hideous form, which is only briefly hinted at in the book when he scares the man who shot him with a paintball gun? Maybe, but we don’t see any maggots. We do see someone in a helmet who might be one of the antichrist Adam Young’s Atlanteans.

As the procession moves to the cosmos, we see that Famine and his sickly horse have joined Death, as have more bizarre people, aliens, and… things.

Adam Young’s power to will into existence the incredible fantasies he believes in takes flight later in the sequence, when an alien spaceship sputters and begins to crash land.

Aziraphale arrives and turns the ship into fish, another reference to Adam Young and his group of friends, the Them. They were fascinated by Charles Fort, who “could make it rain fish and frogs and stuff.” Earlier in the novel, Aziraphale also says the end of the world will be accompanied by strange phenomena, like “showers of fish,” so this is an Easter egg with two yolks. Unless it has three, and this is also an ode to the late Douglas Adams (“So long, and thanks for all the fish!”) from his friend Neil Gaiman. Even if it’s not, we’re going to believe it is.

The march then moves to a boat (as the fish crash into the sea), which is a reference to the pleasure cruiser Morbilli, which came aground in the lost continent of Atlantis thanks to Adam Young. We also get a glimpse (below Crowley) of the third of Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (and another one of our favorite characters), the redheaded War.

The boat gets consumed by water, another catastrophe as we get closer to the end, before we head below the waves.

Here we see Adam’s real father, Satan himself. At the front of the line. Chalky, better known as Pollution (who took over for the retired Pestilence after mankind discovered penicillin), joins the rest of the Horseman.

Here’s a better close up of the four. No motorcycles however.

The parade, which is now overflowing with people, then moves to the destroyed streets of London. In the background to the left you can see a guillotine, a reference to the book’s theme that mankind comes up with worse horrors to inflict on itself than even Hell can invent.

In the foreground we also see the Witchfinder Shadwell and Madam Tracy riding together on her scooter. Shadwell probably has a can of condensed milk on him, but we can’t see it.

Of course, this is all happening on the dangerous road and secret homage to Satan, the London Orbital M25, which was one of Crowley’s greatest achievements.

As the end nears, we see not one but two Hellhounds, a tribute to the great ghastly beast that Dog was before Adam changed him into a fun-loving and loyal little pet.

The final sequence has the damned going off a cliff. Is that witch at the front? If so, it could be the world’s only accurate prophetess, Agnes Nutter herself, who definitely would have seen this title sequence coming.

Finally, everyone (including a crucified figure) starts to go over; they each either get their wings and ascend or drop into the fiery pit below for all of eternity.

This entire sequence, from the animation style, to the dark-comedic tone, to the strange characters, feels very inspired by Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python. That’s fitting, since Gilliam was once attached to direct a movie adaptation of Good Omens.

We would have loved to see that, but now that we have the series coming, it’s not the end of the world it never happened. So long as the world doesn’t end before it premieres.

Images: Amazon Prime

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Neil Gaiman has built a career out of mythical storytelling. From his novels American Gods and Anansi Boys to his recent Norse Mythology collection, the British author is known for his deep well of folklore knowledge and his brilliant re-imaginings. Now, he’s set to bring that passion to the small screen with a reboot of Jim Henson’s classic ’80s anthology series, The Storyteller.

For those unfamiliar, The Storyteller was a re-telling of various European folk stories, populated with giants and white lions and other various beasts brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The show was narrated by a mysterious elfin storyteller played by John Hurt. Henson got the idea for the series after his daughter, Lisa, studied folklore and mythology at Harvard University. Each episode was written by Oscar-winner Anthony Minghella.

“The Storyteller has been a longtime favorite for our fans who appreciate the beautiful artistry and faithful visualizing of these classic tales,” said Lisa Henson in a press release announcing the reboot. “It has always been a special project for me as well, having worked so closely with my dad on the original concept.”

Fremantle will produce the series with the The Jim Henson Company. According to Deadline, the new series will be updated for the “for the binging kind” of viewer, and will go deep into the background of the titular Storyteller.

“Who was the Storyteller, why was he telling these stories, was he a goblin, what kind of creature?” said Gaiman. “What I’d love to do is an inside story that’s as long as the outside story.”

Gaiman also added that the new series will “begin in a Northern kingdom where stories are forbidden” and will have an “interactive” quality between the Storyteller and the stories.

Fremantle is currently working with Gaiman on the second season of American Gods for STARZ. No word yet when or where the new episodes of The Storyteller will land, but we’ll follow this story wherever it goes.

Images: The Jim Henson Company

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Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is one of the most beloved sci-fi / fantasy novels of the last 20 years.

When it was announced in 2011 that it would be becoming a HBO show, fans rejoiced. That series never made it to our screens, but in 2014 it was picked up by Starz, who announced they would be developing the project with Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller with Michael Green, which seemed like the perfect fit.

Three years later the season debuted on the channel to generally positive reviews, but two years later we’re still waiting on the sophomore offering. The series has gone through multiple showrunners, and with the hint at a third season reported by Deadline at the Television Critics Association, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know.

The Production

American Gods has gone through a lot of behind the scenes problems throughout its almost decade long development and eventual production. This began with the leaving HBO, which HBO’s Michael Lombardo told Vulture was due to creative differences with the script. “We tried three different writers, we put a lot of effort into it. Some things just don’t happen.”

Though the show found a home at Starz after the first season, showrunners Brian Fuller and Michael Green announced they were leaving for season two. Though at first it appeared that the split was amicable, fans wondered why the creative team would have jumped ship, and in now deleted tweets Brian Fuller revealed his plans for the next season and that the pair were actually fired.

“Me and [Michael Green] never abandoned [American Gods]. We were dedicated to cast, crafted the season, wrote 5 episodes, even had Media (Gillian Anderson) as Mr. Rogers & Princess Leia. We were in the process of reducing scope due to a dramatic budget reduction when we were fired.”

In March 2018 (five months after Fuller and Green left), Jesse Alexander was brought on as new showrunner alongside Neil Gaiman. But in September, a report in The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Alexander was being “sidelined” due to “delays and frustrations.” Alexander was never replaced.

Season Two

Deadline describes the new season thus: “In season two, the battle moves toward a crisis point, as the destinies of gods and men collide. While Mr. World plots revenge for the attack against him in the first season, Shadow throws in his lot with Wednesday’s attempt to convince the Old Gods of the case for full-out war, with Laura and Mad Sweeney in tow.”

During the Television Critics Association winter press tour, the cast and crew spoke about season two and the tumultuous production (via Variety). For creator Gaiman it’s been a waiting game, but a worthwhile one.“It’s definitely taken a while to get Season 2 out but it takes awhile to get good [episodes]. I think we’d all rather have it good than have it quicker,” Gaiman said.

Emily Browning, who plays Laura Moon, revealed that the show begins about “30 minutes after season one ended.” As for the arc of her controversial character, Browning feels like “Laura finally has Shadow there in front of her and… as is probably to be expected of Laura, she realizes that maybe now she has what she wants she’s not entirely sure it’s what she wants.”

EW had some more interesting quotes, including one from Mr. Wednesday himself, Ian McShane, who’s clearly excited to get back to the source material. This season “is really a great way back to the book, which I thought we got away from in season one.… We needed to get back to the line in the book, which is reuniting Shadow [Ricky Whittle] with his story.” McShane explained. “Gaiman wrote a great blueprint for a TV series that can go wherever it wants as long as it remains true to the roots.” McShane added.

The actor summarized season two by comparing it to the journey that he feels Whittle’s Shadow Moon goes on, “The first season thematically tended to be: Weird shit happens and Shadow goes, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Season two is Shadow figuring out what is going on, and weird shit is still happening, but now he is actually learning what’s going on.”

EW also got some insightful thoughts from the giant Leprechaun himself, Pablo Schreiber. “Where season one set up the world and took a lot of time to establish the world we were living in and set up these dialogues and hit on a number of issues, season two is a little more plot-driven,” the actor teased. “We’re really moving the book forward, and the story forward.”

Orlando Jones, who plays Mr. Nancy, also added his thoughts on how the new season would move things forward. “It was a lot of work just to get [the concept] out there,” Jones said. “In season two, a lot of those things are more rooted in characters and what their emotions are.”

Season Three

Deadline got the quote about the possibility of another season from a source close to the production. “We didn’t make season two of American Gods not to make a season three.” McShane also had thoughts on the further narrative at TCA, and said, it can go “wherever it wants, so long as it’s true to the roots. It’s not Harry Potter and it’s not the Marvel universe.”

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Images: Starz

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American Gods ended its first season over a year and half ago, but after what seems like a excruciating wait, the journey of Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) and Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) across the country will continue, when the series returns for its second season on Sunday, March 10. Based on Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed fantasy novel of the same name, American Gods centers around the battle between the Gods of the Old World, like Ian McShane’s Mr. Wednesday (a.k.a. Odin), and the Gods of the modern world, embodied by the likes of Mr. World, the God of Globalization.Now, we have our first full trailer for season two, which you can watch down below:

Set to a cover of XTC’s ’80s classic “Dear God,” an appropriate song for this show if ever there was, we see Mr. Wednesday is still ready to gather the Old Gods and wage war on the New, with his recruit Shadow in tow. Despite reports of a drastic budget reduction for this second season — which saw the departure of series executive producer Bryan Fuller — it seems the gorgeous visuals for which the show is famous are in full display once more. Sadly, series standouts like Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth won’t be returning next season.According to the official description, “in Season Two, the battle moves inexorably toward crisis point as the destinies of gods and men collide. While Mr. World plots revenge for the attack against him in Season One, Shadow throws in his lot with Wednesday’s attempt to convince the Old Gods of the case for full-out war, with Laura and Mad Sweeney in tow. A council at the House on the Rock explodes into chaos, sending deities both Old and New on quests across America that will converge on Cairo, Illinois: forcing Shadow to carve out a place as a believer in this strange new world of living gods — a dark world where change demands commitment, and faith requires terrible sacrifice.”American Gods, which also stars Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, and Back to the Future‘s Crispin Glover as Mr. World, premieres on Sunday, March 10 at 8PM ET/PT on STARZ.

Images: STARZ

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It’s harder to think of two things in comics that are tonally further apart than the high art philosophy and folklore of Vertigo Comics‘ seminal Sandman series and the bright, light breeziness of the The CW’s Arrowverse. Well, those worlds have officially collided with the recent Elseworlds crossover which saw a supervillain who–though introduced in Justice League of America Vol. 1 #5 as a vital antagonist to the superteam–has also played a vital role in the cult comic from Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, and Sam Keith. Yep, Doctor Destiny made an appearance.It’s easy to forget Sandman is a part of the larger DC Universe, in part due to the fact that Vertigo is often wrongly thought of as a creator-owned comics publisher. DC established the imprint to market their mature readers comics after the success of lauded books like Watchmen, Animal Man, and Sandman. Gaiman’s writing on Sandman is widely thought of as one of the best examples of the medium. So fans who were familiar with Doctor Destiny from the pages of the comic were likely surprised when his alias John Deegan turned up in the opening minutes of the first episode of the massive Elseworlds crossover.In the comics, Doctor Destiny has the power to control dreams, which was integrated into Sandman lore with the retcon that his mother gave him Morpheus’ dream stone. This chunk of his story was connected to Arkham Asylum, which is where we saw him located in the second episode. The Monitor and his Book of Destiny gave Deegan powers in the show, but it has us wondering if the CW’s Arrowverse might be thinking of adding more Sandman characters its outrageous shows’ rosters, especially with the now announced Crisis on Infinite Earths event heading our way.The Arrowverse has never shied away from introducing stranger characters from DC Comics with deep cuts like Mister Terrific and Wild Dog, but it’s the inclusion of the bisexual demon hunter and cursed hottie Constantine from Vertigo’s Hellblazer that opened the door to utilizing other cult comics characters. With Deegan, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny, now a part of the CW’s shows it wouldn’t be hard introduce Morpheus–especially when Deegan’s Book of Destiny is literally just his dreams written down and coming true. We could easily imagine the Legends discovering the King of Dreams as part of their hunt for magical refugees, or perhaps see Death appear now that Oliver apparently made a bargain to save the lives of Kara and Barry.

Images: The CW, DC Comics, Vertigo

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