Gwendoline Christie Is In The Sandman As A Dark Character

Gwendoline Christie is joining Neil Gaiman's The Sandman on Netflix and will be playing a very dark and evil character on the show.

By Doug Norrie | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Gwendoline Christie

Gwendoline Christie might forever be known for her role as Brienne of Tarth on HBO’s Game of Thrones series. In it, she played a fantastic character, one of the few female knights around who just happened to be able to match just about any other fighter pound-for-pound and sword-for-sword. So you’ll be forgiven if this is how you picture the actress going forward. But it looks like with her next role she’s distancing herself from that character and moving into another part of the fantasy genre. It looks like the rumors are true and Gwendoline Christie will officially be joining the cast of The Sandman as something of a darker character (to say the least). 

Gwendoline Christie will be playing Lucifer on The Sandman, a dark turn indeed. She is getting second billing for the show and will likely be at the center of the core storylines at least for the first season. This represents a much different feel for the devil than we’ve mostly seen on screen in the past considering it’s a female taking the role. But Christie should be more than up for the task as a domineering and sadistic force in the show. It’s a divergence from her Brienne character of course, but the actress definitely has the acting chops and the look to pull something like this off in a big way. 

The Sandman is based on the Neil Gaiman graphic novel of the same name. It follows the character Dream (or Morpheus) who is the ruler over the dominion of sleep. He is part of a group called the Endless who represent the other dominions or states of feeling. They include Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and Destruction. It was originally speculated that Gwendoline Christie would play one of these characters, but it appears instead she’ll be the central antagonist for the show. 

Gwendoline Christie

Gwendoline Christie will star alongside Tom Sturridge who is in the main role as Dream. Also joining the cast are Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, and Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess. Finally, Sanjeeve Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry play Cain and Abel respectively. From this casting, it’s unclear if the story will follow Gaiman’s work 1:1 or if they are working more towards an origin story with Biblical figures as the cornerstones. 

We’ve been eagerly anticipating The Sandman to hit the screen basically ever since Gaiman’s books originally came out. But it’s going to be some time before we see Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie possibly face off on-screen. The show was originally slated to begin production all the way back in May. But pandemic-related closures and regulations really impacted the timeline. Finally, production got underway in October, though it remains to be seen what was actually put in the can considering they are still finalizing casting decisions. 

In all, The Sandman could be yet another hit for Netflix in the fantasy realm and it has such a good baseline of source material to work with. Getting Gwendoline Christie into a darker role, one that could really bring out the evil could put the show on another level for sure.