Last year, news broke that Netflix had greenlit a TV series based on The Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s popular fantasy series that helped launch the Vertigo comic book imprint and define a new era of boundary-pushing titles from DC. The series started filming last year, though news on the show was sparse and the cast remained unknown…until now.

This morning, Netflix’s NX Twitter account gave us our first look at some of The Sandman’s core cast, and it’s certainly exciting. Take a look at what was announced in this gallery, then join us below for some discussion.

What’s striking about the cast so far is how well it mixes comic book faithfulness with new visions for the characters. Several characters are gender-bent from the comics—if characters like Lucien and Lucifer even have genders. Let’s be real, there’s no reason to think that they do. With that in mind, it’s hard not to get excited at the prospect of Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. She does bear a resemblance to Lucifer in the comics, while playing the Morningstar will likely give us a chance to see a side of the actress that we’ve never seen before. (It’ll also make it easier to avoid thinking of Tom Ellis in the role, whose portrayal is beloved by legions of fans.)

Charles Dance, who played Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones, is a fitting Roderick Burgess. In fact, the worst thing about the idea of Dance in the role is that we won’t get to enjoy his performance for longer. As for the main guy, its hard to see Tom Sturridge as anything less than perfect for Morpheus. We’d say that’s “dream casting,” but then you’d run us out of town for the bad pun and we wouldn’t be able to finish writing this.

There are some notable omissions as far as the cast goes, so this announcement is clearly only the beginning. We still don’t know who’s playing Death. As Dream’s sister and fellow Endless, Death plays a key role in the comic series and has built a pretty passionate fanbase of her own, so we’re pretty eager to see who will be (irony fully intended here) bringing her to life. Also still to be revealed are characters like Doctor Destiny, John Constantine, Rose Walker, Unity Kinkaid and Hob Gadling. (Though, to be clear, it’s uncertain how much of The Sandman’s story we can expect to see in season one. Some of these characters may not appear until a future season, and it’s possible others might not appear at all. But with the Corinthian’s casting, we have to assume that at least part of “A Doll’s House” will be included.)

Gaiman has told us that unlike the Sandman audio production—which also had an exciting announcement this morning—the Netflix series will be making some changes from the source material. One of the biggest is setting the series in the present day rather than in the late ’80s and early ’90s of when it was written. While The Sandman comic was undeniably groundbreaking at the time, attitudes and styles have changed, so it will be interesting to see how that might impact Dream’s story.

But that’s enough from us. What do you think of the Sandman cast that’s been revealed so far? Who are you most excited to see? And what would you do if you accidentally captured one of the Endless? Let us know your thoughts on all of these in the DC Community!