The Sandman Teaser: Dream Big With Neil Gaiman As The Series Premieres On Netflix In August

The last five years have been a roller coaster ride for Neil Gaiman fans, between the rise and fall of "American Gods" on Starz and the success of "Good Omens" on Prime Video. Things aren't going to be slowing down anytime soon, either, what with the second season of "Good Omens" on the way, along with the small screen adaptations of the multi-hyphenate's "American Gods" quasi-spinoff novel "Anansi Boys" and his venerated comic book series "The Sandman."

Written by Gaiman and published from 1989 to 1996, the original run of "The Sandman" comics center on Morpheus or Dream (played by Tom Sturridge in the TV show), the king of dreams and one of seven ageless beings that embody forces of nature like desire and destruction (also referred to as the Endless). He's also a big ol' jerk who struggles with the whole having empathy for and showing forgiveness to others thing, much less trying to understand what it's like to be mortal and suffer the ravages of time. As such, it comes as a real shock when he's captured in an occult ritual — having been mistaken for his sibling Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) — and held captive for more than a century, only to escape and discover that his kingdom, the Dreaming, has fallen into disrepair in his absence.

There's a new teaser for you below, and it comes with confirmation of the show's premiere date. 

Neil Gaiman is executive producing and co-writing "The Sandman" TV show along with David S. Goyer ("Krypton," "Foundation") and Allan Heinberg (co-creator of the "Young Avengers" comic books and co-writer of the first "Wonder Woman" movie). The show's sprawling supporting cast includes Brienne of Tarth herself, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, as well as Jenna Coleman as John Constantine's ancestor Johanna Constantine, Vivienne Acheampong as the Dreaming's librarian Lucienne, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeev Bhaskar as the Dreaming residents Abel and Cain (yes, that Abel and Cain), David Thewlis as the sure-to-be-terrifying John Dee, and the always-welcome Patton Oswalt as the voice of Dream's raven companion, Matthew.

With loads of critically-acclaimed source material to draw from for "The Sandman," Netflix is no doubt dreaming (heh) of launching a long-running fantasy juggernaut to call its own with the latest Gaiman TV series. The original comic books are still regarded by a lot of Gaiman fans as his magnum opus, yet there's clear room for the show to improve upon them, especially in the early going when it's drawing from the author's first volume of stories (back when, as Gaiman himself might admit, he didn't entirely know where he was going with the sweeping tale of Morpheus). So, here's to hoping the series fulfills all that potential and then some.

"The Sandman" hits Netflix on August 5, 2022.