A good villain requires a lot, regardless of the medium—literature, film, or television—in order to be created. Making a good villain complex and nuanced takes even more work. A master at playing both of those kinds of characters brings it all together in Netflix’s The Sandman, a faithful adaptation of the adored comic book of the same name by Neil Gaiman.
John Dee, played by David Thewlis, is introduced to the audience in the show’s second episode. In the past few decades, Thewlis has built quite an impressive resume, and his role as Dee, the antagonist of the first half of Season 1 of The Sandman, appears to be just the latest highlight.
John Dee is a character that, if played by a lesser actor, could have been more like a bad guy with a mustache. a person who abuses power and is currently on a vengeance-seeking rampage.
However, Thewlis portrays Dee with a hint of unspoken sadness that is best conveyed by his facial expressions and body language, as well as by the soft tone with which he speaks, frequently describing the heinous crimes (including murder) that he has committed.
The character does not quite have the same touch in Gaiman’s original work. The DC Universe is more closely connected to the comic book series; John Dee is just another name for a character who also goes by the name Doctor Destiny.
This punching-bag villain has become a monster that looks like a mummy or zombie because he uses Dream’s Ruby too much and keeps getting killed by Batman and Green Lantern. The majority of his time is spent in Arkham Asylum.
In the Netflix series, Thewlis has to carry out much more of the heavy lifting because those DC connections have been severed. In addition, Gaiman and co-showrunners Allan Heinberg and David S. Goyer did a good job of making this character not only a real threat but also one with whom we can almost agree at times.
This is a character and a portrayal that you won’t soon forget, from the heart-pounding but ultimately humanizing moment of giving Rosemary (Sarah Niles) a gift to the never-ending horror of the “24/7” episode.
John Dee is David Thewlis’s latest great role
To put it simply, Thewlis has been a great actor for decades in both film and television. Fans of Sandman who are unsure where exactly they are familiar with him have probably seen him in a few of their favorite franchises: He portrayed Professor Lupin in several Harry Potter films, and he was Wonder Woman’s unexpected antagonist Ares in 2017.
The classics, however, do not end there. When Thewlis’ major breakthrough occurred in the 1993 independent film Naked, which premiered at Cannes and established his reputation, he had already been an active actor for some time. In the 1990s, he had other memorable roles, one of which was a small but memorable one in which he just snickered like a complete weirdo next to Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski.
He starred as the main character in the stop-motion film Anomalisa, which was directed by Charlie Kaufman. He then worked again with Kaufman on the existential horror film I’m Thinking of Ending Things in 2020, in which he starred alongside Toni Collette, Jesse Plemons, and Jessie Buckley.
Before The Sandman, Thewlis also had excellent television work to his credit; He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in Season 3 of Fargo. In 2021, he starred alongside Oscar-winning Olivia Colman in the murder mystery Landscapers, which was based on a true story.
Furthermore, assuming that you’ve been imagining that his voice sounds recognizable, it’s most likely on the grounds that you’ve heard him as the Disgrace Wizard on Netflix’s Loud Mouth or its side project, HR.
He has also demonstrated his talents off the screen; The 59-year-old star has written and directed the 2003 movie Cheeky, and he has also written and published two novels: Shooting Martha, which was released in 2021, and The Late Hector Kipling, which was published in 2007.
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