The last couple of days, I’ve been rewatching Sandman (my Web Goddess hadn’t seen the series, and I’ve been trying to get her to for months; she was finally in the mood). I was an early adopter of Gaiman (I have a complete set of the original run of the comic book); rewatching the series reminded me of just how great his storytelling is.
One distraction was the firestorm of criticism the series received because of its casting. It’s true that many roles which were male in the books were cast with female actors. I would argue that they, nonetheless, captured the essence of the characters brilliantly; Vivienne Acheampong, for instance, was just as haughty as I imagined Lucienne, the librarian of The Dreaming, to be.
I was not bothered by the casting in the least.
I would also argue that it was absolutely necessary. How, for instance, could a male actor fill the role of Lucifer after Tom Ellis had filled the role for six seasons? Anything an actor could have done would have paled in comparison. Casting Gwendoline Christie in the role gave us an opportunity to see the role in a new light. A similar argument could be made for changing the role of John Constantine (excellently played by Matt Ryan) to Johanna Constantine (whom Jenna Coleman plays with just the right amount of asshole bravado).
When a work moves from one medium to another, changes will be made. I thought Sandman was true to its comic book roots while making for engaging television, and that’s really all a fan can ask for.