With the COVID-19 pandemic locking people down in their houses, it looks like people are getting offended over things they usually won’t care about. Neil Gaiman, the actor playing the role of ‘The Sandman,’ has received backlash from his fans.
The upcoming adaption of The Sandman is the latest TV series that had to bear people’s wrath for its casting choices. It seems Neil Gaiman is now lashing out at some of the toxic people who said he ‘doesn’t give a fuck’ when it comes to his own work.
On May 28th, the popular streaming service Netflix added some new members to the cast of the upcoming graphic novel series The Sandman. The cast new has Kirby Howell Baptiste playing the role of Death, whereas Mason Alexander Park is cast as Desire. The controversy surrounds Death, who is shown as a white male in the graphic novels. Fans say he isn’t white enough.
Some people also pointed out that Park is non-binary, whereas Desire isn’t. They forgot that Gaiman’s character was non-binary in the first place, referencing the source material.
The author even responded to a number of comments on the matter. Talking about Desire’s non-binary status, he said,
Well, yes. But you’d have to have read the comics to know that. And the shouty people appear to have skipped that step.
In April, Gaiman wrote on his blog discussing the casting of The Sandman and how the decisions were made.
We had barely started looking when (they/them) reached out on Twitter, and threw their hat into the ring. We were thrilled when they got the part…[Death was] significantly harder to cast than you might imagine. Hundreds of talented women from all around the planet auditioned, and they were brilliant, and none of them were right. Someone who could speak the truth to Dream, on the one hand, but also be the person you’d want to meet when your life was done on the other. And then we saw Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s (she/her) audition and we knew we had our Death.
It should be noted that the casting process is still underway. Some names that might make to the show include Jenna Coleman, Patton Oswalt, David Thewlis and Stephen Fry. The show still has a long way to go in terms of production.
