Rejoice, ye nerds! Today, Neil Gaiman released a new piece of writing. It’s not a book or a script. It’s a blog post, for Netflix, announcing some casting news for the streamer’s upcoming adaptation of his beloved Sandman comic series. We already learned in January that Gwendoline Christie has been cast as Lucifer and Tom Sturridge will play Dream, lord of the dreaming. But, as Gaiman writes, “there are more parts to be announced. And I thought it would be fun to tell you about some of them, and the thinking behind them.” Notably, both Gaiman’s blog post and the casting graphics posted to Twitter include the pronouns of all actors involved. Considering the rise in transphobia in Gaiman’s native U.K. as well as the U.S., this small inclusion is powerful. Gaiman’s descriptions of the cast and characters include:
Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, Dream’s “wiser, nicer, and much more sensible sister.”
Mason Alexander Park as Desire, “Dream’s sibling and everything you want, whatever you want and whoever you are.”
Donna Preston as Despair, “and her performance is chilling and sad. You feel her pain.”
Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century occult adventuress who is “tough, brilliant, tricky, haunted, and probably doomed.”
Niamh Walsh and Joely Richardson as Ethel Cripps young and old, respectively.
David Thewlis as John Dee, Ethel’s son who “was driven mad, long ago.”
Gaiman writes that the second big story line of the series will be “The Doll’s House,” and its cast will include:
Kyo Ra as Rose Walker, “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 as Lyta Hall, “Rose’s friend, a young widow mourning her husband Hector.”
Sandra James Young as Unity Kincaid, an heiress who “has spent a century asleep.”
Stephen Fry as Gilbert, “Rose Walker’s debonair protector.”
And finally, Patton Oswalt will be voicing a talking raven named Matthew. Gaiman reveals that “Patton was the first person we asked, and the first person we cast, the day before we pitched The Sandman to Netflix.”
