‘Lucifer’ Producers Weigh in on ‘The Sandman’ Using a New Lucifer

Lucifer Morningstar is an iconic DC Comics character, and TV viewers have now seen several imitations of the character on their screens, the most recent being in Netflix’s The Sandman. The series, which premiered last month, stars Gwendoline Christie in a role that was previously held by Tom Ellis in fellow Netflix series Lucifer, and Lucifer showrunner Joe Henderson has given his thoughts on how the show’s titular character was portrayed in The Sandman.

In a recent interview with TVLine ahead of the release of Lucifer Season 6 on DVD, Henderson and fellow co-showrunner Ildy Modrovich opened up about all aspects of the hit Netflix original series. Asked by the outlet their thoughts on Christie’s performance of Lucifer, Henderson had nothing but praise. Although Henderson admitted that “many of the fans were like, ‘Why isn’t it Tom Ellis?,’” he said that “if you watch the show you see why, because her Lucifer is cruel, and brutal, and awesome. And it would break our hearts if Tom Ellis played that version of it, because ours is very sweet and kind.”

Reflecting on those stark differences between the two versions of the same DC character, Henderson added, “I love the differences.” Lucifer’s appearance in The Sandman has even sparked some new ideas for Henderson, who shared, “I want to write the road trip spinoff of the two of them traveling America together and getting in trouble!” Overall, Henderson said, “I loved her. I love it.”

Based on Neil Gaiman’s comic book of the same name, The Sandman follows Morpheus, the Dream King, and the people and places affected by him as he embarks on a journey across worlds to find what was stolen from him and restore his power. The series premiered in early August of this year, a little less than a year after Lucifer ended in September 2021. That series centered around the titular character. It originally premiered on Fox, though after three seasons, the network decided to cancel Lucifer, prompting a social media movement by fans to save the show. Netflix eventually proved to be Lucifer‘s saving grace, swooping in to pick it up for what would be three additional seasons. Similar to The Sandman, Lucifer was a massive hit on Netflix, where each of its seasons exclusive to the streamer as an original series broke onto the streaming charts. Both The Sandman and Lucifer are available for streaming on Netflix.