The Sandman remains one of seminal author Neil Gaiman's best works, and with the Audible take on the story now available, Gaiman has been discussing the portrayal of the ethereal main character, voiced in the project by Split and X-Men: First Class star James McAvoy.

"We had to start recording before we had a Morpheus. But once we did cast James, he wasn't available until I think March, so we were going to record everything without him and then put him in. Then that ended up getting delayed, because the day they were meant to go into the studio, the world went into lockdown. So we wound up having to get recording equipment over to his place, and Dirk had to direct him over Zoom. Having said that, all these episodes that I'd heard in rough form with other people playing Morpheus hadn't worked."

Neil Gaiman then went on to also discuss the casting of Good Omens star Michael Sheen as Lucifer, who Gaiman describes as "one of the greatest actors of his generation."

"Michael was a huge fan of the comics, reading them since he was a kid, so Michael knew that Lucifer had been drawn as the young David Bowie. I think of Michael Sheen as one of the greatest actors of his generation, which he is. I forget he is also one of the greatest impressionists. All of a sudden, I'm standing here in the studio, and Michael Sheen's mouth is open, and David Bowie's voice is coming out. It was so weird and amazing."

James McAvoy takes on the lead role of Morpheus the Lord of Dreams, a god-like entity accidentally summoned from his slumber by an occultist trying to bring forth Morpheus's sibling Death. His sister, Death, will be played by Thor: The Dark World and Big Mouth star Kat Dennings. The rest of the cast includes Michael Sheen as the devilishly popular DC character Lucifer and Kingsman: The Secret Service star Taron Egerton as the paranormal investigator John Constantine.

The Audible series Cast also includes Doctor Who's Arthur Darvill as William Shakespeare, Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes as Despair, War for the Planet of the Apes and Lord of the Rings legend Andy Serkis as Matthew the Raven, and Venom star Riz Ahmed as the nightmare The Corinthian. Also joining the main cast will be Justin Vivian Bond (Desire), William Hope (Doctor John Dee), Mathew Horne (Hob Gadling), Reginald D. Hunter (J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter), Sue Johnston (Unity Kinkaid), Paterson Joseph (The Demon Chronzon) and Josie Lawrence (Mad Hettie). Neil Gaiman will be providing his voice as The Narrator, as well as producing the series.

The Sandman originally ran for 75 issues from 1989-1996 and follows the main character Dream, also known as Morpheus among other names, a conceptual entity struggling with his place in the universe. He is one of the seven Endless, with the other Endless being Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, formerly Delight, and Destruction.

The first part of The Sandman is available now via Audible. This comes to us courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.