Gwendoline Christie to play gender-flipped Lucifer in Netflix's Sandman
Who says Lucifer has to be male? Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie cast as the King of Hell in Neil Gaiman's live-action Sandman series for Netflix. Plus more casting news.
Gwendoline Christie is best known for portraying Brienne of Tarth in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones.
When the news hit in 2019 that Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series from Vertigo and DC Comics would be made into a live-action series for Netflix, fans speculated who would play the moody Lord of Dreams Morpheus/Sandman and his dysfunctional (and sometimes destructive) family members Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium.
In addition to Sandman's family, another big role to fill is that of the King of Hell himself, Lucifer. On Thursday, news hit that Game of Thrones actor Gwendoline Christie will play the role. It's an interesting casting choice considering Lucifer was always portrayed as a male in both the comic book series and the Lucifer live-action series on Netflix.
Christie confirmed the casting news on her Instagram on Thursday with an image that reads The Sandman, It Begins.
Lucifer isn't the only character to swap genders. Actor Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) will play chief librarian Lucienne, who is also the guardian of Dream's world. In the comics, the character is male and named Lucien.
Netflix describes the live-action Sandman series as "a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven. The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic -- and human -- mistakes he's made during his vast existence."
In the Sandman comics, Lucifer decides he's bored ruling Hell and relocates to Los Angeles.
Actor Tom Sturridge (Starz's Sweetbitter) will play the lead role of Lord of the Dreaming Morpheus, according to Netflix. Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) portrays The Corinthian, a nightmare creature disguised as a man, with jaws in place of eyes.
Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) will play Roderick Burgess, a con artist and magician. Asim Chaudhry (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday) play the Biblical characters Abel and Cain, brothers who become the first victim and the first killer, and who also live in Dream's realm.
Meet some of the cast of the upcoming Netflix series, The Sandman.
"For the last 33 years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head," Gaiman said in a statement on Thursday. "I'm unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can't wait until the people out there get to see what we've been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there."
Gaiman (American Gods) and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman) are on board to write the upcoming series. David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) will serve as executive producer for Warner Bros. Television.
A premiere date for Sandman has not yet been announced.
