Neil Gaiman Has Some Harsh Truth For Haters Calling The Sandman 'Woke'
Neil Gaiman, the creator of The Sandman, is never afraid to push back at trolls and haters.
This time, he has an epic answer to all the critics labeling his creation "too woke". "That's just treating other people with respect," Gaiman said in his interview with Times Radio.
Gaiman pointed out that the classic comic book that inspired the Netflix show has always been "woke." He added that before calling it "woke" critics used the phrase "politically correct" as in "political correctness gone mad". The author proposed to replace both "politically correct" and "woke" with "treating other people with respect" to avoid any confusion.
Netflix's television adaptation of The Sandman premiered earlier this year to be received with mixed emotions. The show drew numerous fans and various criticisms at the same time.
Even before the show began filming, Neil Gaiman found himself fending off complaints about the cast of the series. Self-proclaimed fans didn't like the casting of diverse actors, including Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death and Mason Alexander Park (a non-binary actor who prefers they/them pronouns) as Desire.
After the show aired, critics proclaimed it to be "too woke" for portraying too many LGBTQ+ characters. "Almost every female character is a lesbian, and almost every male character is gay (or straight and evil)," one commenter wrote. Later, angry commentators even started sort of a trend on Twitter using "go woke, go broke" or some variation of the phrase. Usually, these words would go hand in hand with the suggestion to cancel the show.
Originally, the word "woke" meant being alert to racial prejudice, discrimination, and other social inequalities. However, lately the term has been used as an insult of sorts, aiming to describe people or media who allegedly "gone mad with political correctness."
However, critics might not have thought this one through before labeling The Sandman and its creator "too woke" and tagging Gaiman in their hate tweets.
True fans who read The Sandman comics know that it was way ahead of its time in terms of inclusion. That's exactly what Neil Gaiman had to say to haters using the phrase "go woke, go broke".
"Too late. Sandman was already woke in 1988. But good news! We did fine anyway!" he tweeted.
"Fine" is too modest a word to describe The Sandman. The original comic book series became one of the first graphic novels to appear on The New York Times Best Seller list. Netflix's show has also proved to be a huge success, drawing massive viewership numbers.