You know it’s Netflix Geeked Week when there’s a new update for The Sandman. The spooky adaptation has released the first teaser for the screen version of Neil Gaiman’s hit DC Comics series, and it’s thoroughly unsettling.
The biggest Sandman news, though, has to be the casting of Mark Hamill as a character named Merv Pumpkinhead. Folks new to The Sandman might find that name a little goofy—I mean, c’mon, Merv Pumpkinhead?—and that’s good, because he’s a wise-cracking janitor working on maintenance in the world of the Dreaming.
The rest of the show, from the looks of it, doesn’t seem so cheeky. The first teaser trailer is creepy, dark, and nearly satanic-looking. Not somewhere you’d find a jokester named Merv Pumpkinhead; nevertheless, Mark Hamill shall persist.
“He’s coming,” Mad Hettie announces in the trailer. “He’s no fairy story. And he’s back.”
Tom Sturridge declares himself “the king of dreams, ruler of the nightmare realm” in the trailer. He’s set to play “Dream,” aka Morpheus (not to be confused with Dr. Morbius), an evil-ish creature who escapes after years of imprisonment and sets off to restore order in the land of the dreams.
The trailer also reveals a stunning look at the land of the dreams in question—a towering fantasy world of evergreen trees, snowy mountaintops, and epic castles. But some sort of darkness looms over it, as Dream finds out the land has started to decay and he must set things all back in order.
Along with a gothic-looking Sturridge as the lead character, this new trailer spotlights some of the other members of the ensemble cast. Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance appears as Roderick Burgess, with Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, and Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine also in the trailer.
Though we didn’t get to see his role in the trailer, Hamill will voice Merv Pumpkinhead alongside other key roles played by Gwendoline Christie, Patton Oswalt, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Fry, and Joely Richardson.
Gaiman has returned to write the series with Grey’s Anatomy’s Allan Heinberg and The Dark Knight’s David S. Goyer, with Heinberg tapped as the series’ showrunner. The Sandman will run for ten episodes, with an extra one episode tacked on at the end. So, 11 episodes.
The Sandman will debut August 5 on Netflix.
