Neil Gaiman explains why Sandman drama won't cross over with Netflix's Lucifer

But after announcing that Gwendoline Christie will star as Lucifer in the Sandman TV drama, Gaiman explained on Twitter that it would impossible for the two shows to take place in a shared universe because of events that have already taken place in Lucifer.

"You can't get from the Lucifer TV series to Sandman #3 or even Season of Mists," he wrote in response to a fan on Twitter, while also denying a report that Taron Egerton had been cast as Constantine.

He also joked: "We just have to wait until the finals of the Lucifer-Off, to see if she or Tom [Ellis] walk away..."

Season of Mists refers to a collection of The Sandman comics which will form the basis for part of the TV series, in which the character Lucifer features prominently.

Following Gaiman's tweet, another fan wrote that he saw "no reason to not use the existing Constantine and Lucifer actors" from the ongoing Lucifer series, which drew another response from the author.

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"I'm not sure I understand," he wrote. "You'd rather have the Cain, Eve, etc characters from Lucifer TV than the ones in Sandman? And how would you make Season of Mists work, given Lucifer is already gone from Hell and running a Lux that's not the one in Sandman?"

The Sandman TV series is based on Gaiman's comic, which was published by DC Comics between 1989 and 1996, and is separate to the recently released Audible version of the story.

The series will tell the story of Dream of the Endless, a supernatural being who rules over the world of dreams with a cast that includes Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeev Bhaskar.

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