There is little doubt that fans are already looking forward to The Sandman. After all, it has been a very long wait (over three decades) for the adaptation and it's amazing that the series is finally coming to Netflix this year.
Still, there are a few things that people question about The Sandman like the casting of Death, who will be played by the Black actor Kirby Howell-Baptiste. Now, Neil Gaiman has pointed out that "color-blind casting" was important when they were looking for actors who would play The Endless.
Neil Gaiman recently spoke to Total Film where he addressed the backlash over Death's casting in the Netflix show.
"The thing that got me grumpiest was when people on Twitter would go, 'This is not the gamine-esque, white, goth-y Death that I've had in my head for all these years, why are you betraying us?'" Gaiman said.
"But watch 1,000 Death auditions. Hundreds of the actors we saw were gamine-esque, some white-skinned," he continued. Gaiman then pointed out that "It's the Endless -- we did colour-blind casting, because why wouldn't you? The comics establish that the characters look like whatever we want them to look like."
He finally concluded by defending Howell-Baptiste's casting.
"Anyway, Kirby's amazing. And I think that people who have been grumbling that she doesn't look like Death are going to not be grumbling [any more] once they see her be Death," Gaiman said.
The casting of The Endless is certainly not what most people would consider conventional but it would be interesting to see how it all plays out in the series. Needless to say, we're looking forward to meeting Death and the rest of her siblings this August.
The Sandman will premiere on Netflix on August 5, 2022.
Related: Neil Gaiman Says The Sandman Series Was Inspired by Howard the Duck
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