In The Sandman, Netflix's take on Neil Gaiman's beloved comics, the titular Dream faces off against a whole bunch of foes, from the eyeball-munching Corinthian to his siblings Despair and Desire. Then there's Lucifer – played by Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie, who had a blast going toe-to-toe with Tom Sturridge's protagonist.
The pair first meet on screen in episode 4, 'A Hope in Hell', when Dream pays a visit to the underworld, having learned that his missing helm is in the possession of a demon. After wangling an audience with the formidable fallen angel, Dream, AKA Morpheus, soon finds himself duelling it out with Lucifer in a lavish throne room in his effort to take back what is his.
"Pretty much all of it was there. They really built that palace," Christie tells Total Film, when asked what the scene was like to shoot. "It was up on stilts. It was a huge set, with pits of fire. It had human bodies coming out of the walls. It was an extraordinary thing. We obviously did use many VFX elements, particularly during the challenge – those are always tough, but working with Tom Sturridge was genuinely a delight. It was all about the embrace that we had together as actors, the connection that we had, and the trust that we had in each other.
"I think we really loved playing those scenes. So, it was all about listening to Tom and reacting to it. We had a brilliant director, Jamie Childs, who wanted to push things as far as possible. We had different ideas for our performances in terms of the emotionality or how far we wanted to take it, and he was really willing to go there with us. It was a surprising and joyous, collaborative experience... in Hell."
Much of the dialogue used in the sequence is lifted straight from Gaiman's graphic novels, and it's certainly not the only moment the show adapts directly. Also starring the likes of Boyd Holbrook, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, David Thewlis, and Jenna Coleman, The Sandman follows Dream, a powerful cosmic being, as he journeys to different worlds to retrieve his tools and restore balance after being imprisoned for over a century by a ruthless magic user.
All 10 episodes are available to stream now. If dark fantasy isn't your bag, and you're overwhelmed by the amount of content on the platform, then check out our guide to the best Netflix shows for some viewing inspiration.
