The Sandman author Neil Gaiman is never afraid to push back at trolls who grow confused about the various fantasy shows on streaming. Recently, he answered to angry J.R.R. Tolkien fans who complained that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is too darn “woke.” Those trolls also mistakenly believed that Neil wrote the Middle-earth saga, which caused much amusement from the Good Omens scribe. The ordeal also involved Neil coming for Elon Musk and his “fail” lane regarding gripes about Rings of Power, but Neil also has plenty of experience in being called “too woke.” What those complainers — including people who raised a fuss about diverse casting in Netflix’s The Sandman adaptation — don’t realize is that this Gaiman comic would have been considered “woke” in its time, if there was such a thing back then.
Much like a ragey person came at Gaiman over the “‘woke diversity’ sh*t” in Rings of Power, that same gripe is surfacing with someone urging him to “[s]tay unwoke and Sandman will do just fine.” That happened in response to the Audible production, but the point remains the same. And in response, Neil tweeted, “Too late. Sandman was already woke in 1988. But good news! We did fine anyway!”
Too late. Sandman was already woke in 1988. But good news! We did fine anyway! https://t.co/24qdFmRLkP
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) October 11, 2022
People who read The Sandman comics (and those who even went back to Neil’s Black Orchid run) know that the comic was ahead of its time in terms of inclusion. The care that Gaiman took with female narratives put women in comic book stores back in the late 1980s. He welcomed a legion of female comic book fans and helped to pioneer their prominence in the community, and as far as The Sandman goes, Dream, Death, and the rest of their Endless siblings do not have a specific race as written.
However, people are gonna complain no matter what, and that’s why Gaiman found himself (even before The Sandman began filming) fending off complaints that the series cast diverse actors, including Kirby Howell-Baptiste (definitely not a pale goth girl) as Death and Mason Alexander Park (a non-binary actor who prefers they/them pronouns) as Desire. At the time, Neil insisted, “I give zero f*cks about people who don’t understand/haven’t read Sandman whining… Watch the show, make up your minds.” The show was a success with fans at large, and Gaiman has been very upfront about this being an expensive production with no second season guaranteed (woke or not).
Fingers crossed, though.
The Sandman is currently streaming on Netflix.
