Netflix's upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman represents a true victory for anyone who ever saw filmic potential in the graphic novel series, which for years has been considered impossible to adapt. And David S. Goyer, who's having quite a moment right now as the executive producer of both Sandman as well as Apple TV+'s soon-to-premiere adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation books, says that some of the most potentially difficult Sandman stories to adapt might end up leading to the most "genre-bending" episodes.

As part of an extended interview with Collider's Steve Weintraub in the lead-up to Foundation's debut, Goyer wouldn't spoil exactly what's in store for Sandman. But he did say that "I think it's a very truthful adaptation, and some of the individual issues that we adapted, that were perhaps the trickiest standalone issues in Gaiman's run, have ended up being the most interesting and genre-bending episodes. And I'm really proud of those."

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What issues might Goyer be referring to? This is all speculation, but the first season of The Sandman, which recently finished filming, is set to encompass the stories told in the first two volumes of the graphic novel series, "Preludes and Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House." This may include these stand-alone installments:

"24 Hours" (Volume 1, Issue 6): While technically a key part of the story surrounding the criminally insane Doctor Dee (a character played by David Thewlis in the show), this issue serves almost as a bottle episode revealing the madness that descends on the people trapped in a diner for an extended period of time. (Hard to say exactly how long.)

"The Sound of Her Wings" (Volume 1, Issue 8): The story which introduces the character of Death (played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste), the sister of Dream (Tom Sturridge).

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"Tales in the Sand" (Volume 2, Issue 9): A coming-of-age tale/tragic love story set in an unnamed African nation.

"A Dream of a Thousand Cats" (Volume 3, Issue 18): A feline-focused narrative about cats dreaming of overthrowing their human oppressors is an all-time favorite amongst Sandman fans — while this is not technically from the first two volumes, it's safe to say this issue will figure into the Netflix series, as Gaiman confirmed on Twitter in May that cats have been cast for this part of the adaptation.

All of this was at one time deemed to be "unimaginable" to adapt, which Goyer was conscious of for both Sandman as well as Foundation — in fact, Goyer explained to Collider that he was first offered the opportunity to develop Foundation as a feature film "10 to 15 years ago," he turned down the project, because "then I thought it was impossible to adapt as a feature or even a series of features."

Asimov's novels chronicle an effort to save humanity over the span of generations from the collapse of a galactic empire — meaty but extremely challenging material. Adaptations of Sandman struggled for similar reasons over literal decades — Gaiman's genre-defying graphic novel series was also the basis for many feature film attempts that ended up not succeeding. Now, though, both projects are coming together at the same time, with The Sandman currently in post-production for its eventual Netflix premiere.

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Image via Apple TV+

"It's very strange to me that after literally decades of me dreaming about working on Foundation or Sandman, that both would come my way at almost exactly the same time after decades of various attempts failing. It's funny how that worked out," Goyer said. "But I do think in the case of Foundation or Sandman, a streaming show was perfect... really the only way that the magic of what Asimov and Gaiman had done could be fully realized."

So, thank the world of streaming for these stories, in all their complexity, eventually coming to the screen. In terms of what's in store for Foundation, Asimov fans and the general public will be able to discover the full scope of Goyer's plans when the series premieres Friday, September 24 on Apple TV+.

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