As comic book readers will know, The Sandman is packed with big characters. Neil Gaiman’s game-changing, shape-shifting fantasy opus features a sprawling cast of gods and monsters – taking abstract concepts and giving them physical embodiments (prepare to meet Dream, Desire, Death and beyond), and mixing them in with a wider ensemble of mythological beings, deities, and pulp heroes. The cast for Netflix’s new series adaption, then, is suitably huge – and when the casting for the show started to be revealed, one pairing of actor and character stood especially tall in its brilliance: ‘Gwendoline Christie is Lucifer’.
After making a major mark on Game Of Thrones, the Lady Brienne actor is pivoting from noble knight to play the ultimate fallen angel – and she couldn’t be more excited. “I was so thrilled Allen (Heinberg, co-showrunner) asked me to play Lucifer, because it is a grandiose part,” Christie tells Empire in the new Avatar: The Way Of Water issue. “There are few castings that can supersede that – maybe God, whatever that is! Also, it’s fun to be awful.” For Heinberg (showrunning alongside David S. Goyer and Gaiman himself), her casting was a no-brainer. “Lucifer is this Bowie-esque creature in the comic book and I thought, ‘Well who is a bigger fucking rock star than Gwendoline Christie?’” he says.
Christie was confident that she could pull off playing a character who’s more than mere mortal, transcending the categorisations that earthly beings tend to box themselves into. “Neil clarified that Lucifer is a fallen angel, and that an angel doesn’t have gender at all,” she explains. “And I can play androgynous. We know that from Game Of Thrones, due to the way I look. So I hope that has helped in the portrayal of the character.” Start preparing now for a devilishly good performance.
Read Empire’s full The Sandman feature – talking to Gaiman, Goyer, Heinberg and their cast, with brand new exclusive images – in the Avatar: The Way Of Water issue, on sale now and available to order online here. The Sandman starts streaming on Netflix from 5 August.