Netflix finally pulled back the curtain recently on its highly anticipated adaptation of the Neil Gaiman graphic novel The Sandman, unveiling the full cast for the dark fantasy series. It was revealed that Boyd Holbrook will be filling the role of The Corinthian, an escaped nightmare “who wishes to taste all that the world has in store.”

As it turns out, on the day that Holbrook was announced as being part of The Sandman cast, Collider’s own Steve Weintraub interviewed him for his film premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival Eight for Silver. The Logan actor was understandably mum on details, but sounded excited and revealed they started filming in December and are currently in production in London:

“We’re doin The Sandman. We’re shooting it out in London. I play The Corinthian, which is one of the coolest things that’s happened in awhile to me… It’s like one of the best comic books that hasn’t been made [into a film or TV show].”

Asked how he got cast in the series, Holbrook said the audition process was intense, noting that he first auditioned in early 2020 and didn’t get the role until September:

“It was a long process… I read the script and they were really adamant about everyone auditioning, so I went in – it must have been like a year ago, probably – and then I didn’t hear anything until probably like September or something like that. Anyways it was a long process, and the conversation just started and they wanted to tape again and they wanted me to meet with Neil which I was really interested in doing and talking about just how the show was going to be done.”

Holbrook noted this was an important step, adding that alchemy between the people making a series is just as important as a greenlight:

“Just because a project gets greenlit doesn’t mean things are gonna go great, you kinda wanna suss out who’s involved and how are you gonna do things and what’s the approach and to make sure everything lines up and makes sense to do. Neil has done this for 30 years so you don’t want to lead with the wrong foot. You want to get the ship in the water and point in the right direction from the get-go, because that’s something that’s really hard to reverse-engineer.”

The actor revealed that they started shooting just before Christmas and are scheduled to be in production until June, so it’s quite a long shoot. But of course that’s expected considering the grand scope and ambition of The Sandman.

Holbrook was tight-lipped when asked how long the show is planned to run, only specifically noting that it is indeed a multi-season series and they may shoot it in blocks of time:

“I think everyone wants the show to continue [beyond Season 1]. I think it’s a standard contract that’s like seven, five years whatever. We have talked about all that. I don’t know if it’ll all work out. I think it might work out in different blocks of time, but yeah you definitely want to have some sort of macro idea of how long something’s gonna last. But I don’t wanna give away the details of how long.”

The actor also singled out the level of talent of everyone involved in the series, from the writers to the folks building the sets:

“Dave Goyer’s on it, Allan Heinberg is our showrunner. These guys know what they’re doing. Our directors, these guys are smart and they’re artists and they’re craftsmen. I think no one’s leaving any stone unturned on what stories to incorporate and how to weave them in together and how to play this storyline through. I think people are just going to see this thing realized, and transforming it is really what it’s all about. It is a hard show to turn into reality. There’s so much set building and so much design that goes into this, so a lot of people are employed to get that done. And with such grandiose sets and all that stuff, you have to have a lot of people coming to an agreement on a decision.”

Netflix has yet to announce when The Sandman might premiere, but if it’s going to be in production until June, it may be late 2021 or sometime in 2022 before we see it given the level of visual effects that are almost certainly involved.

Look for our full interview with Holbrook on Collider soon.