Netflix kicked off its Geeked Week recently, and it was packed with thrilling news for fans. Apart from announcements about the upcoming One Piece live-action adaptation and the Addams family spin-off, directed by Tim Burton, the biggest news was that of ‘The Sandman.’

The highly-anticipated live-action series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s magnum opus stars Tom Sturridge in the lead. Sturridge plays the role of Morpheus, or Dream, who’s on the verge of breaking out of his 75 years of imprisonment on the mortal plane. He is also one of the seven eternal entities who control the very aspect of existence. 

However, the one Morpheus looks over is the realm of Dreaming, a reality made up of all the dreams that living creatures create. In his absence, the realm has become a broken and broken place, where nightmares run rampant, wreaking havoc on people’s minds. Now Morpheus or Dream has to team up with his allies like the librarian Lucienne and Matthew the Raven to make things right. 

The brief 1.40-minute trailer also gives us our first look at some of the central characters from the comic books. This includes Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Dream’s brother, who is seen walking over a grass field in a black dress. Then we see Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Dream’s other sibling who likes to charm both men and women, and then there’s Doctor Destiny (David Thewlis), Dream’s antagonist who uses the Dreamstone to bend reality. The trailer ends with the introduction of Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a nightmare who escaped Earth when Dream was imprisoned. 

Judging from the trailer alone, the series does faithfully follow the events of The Sandman, Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes, showcasing to us how Dream was captured by a cult and his subsequent release after many decades. 

Headlining the series along with Sturridge are two Game of Thrones veterans, Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance. Along with, Asim Chaudhry, Donna Preston, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jenna Coleman, Niamh Walsh, Joely Richardson, Patton Oswalt, Kyo Ra, Stephen Fry, Razane Jammal and Sandra James Young. The show will be helmed by Allan Heinberg, who wrote the 2017 Wonder Woman movie. 

The Sandman will stream on Netflix on August 5th, with 11 episodes in the first season. Here’s are the reactions the trailer drew:

(Image credits: Netflix)