The Sandman writer Vanessa Benton explains how the popular ship of Dream and Hob Gadling came about due to the shows diverse writing team.

The Sandman writer Vanessa Benton confirmed that the romantic undertones between Dream and Hob Gadling were deliberate.

In an interview with Gizmodo Benton commented on the relationship between Dream (Tom Sturridge) and Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley) which many fans took a liking to almost immediately when the sixth episode of the show had the eponymous character continuously checking in with the man made immortal by his sister. Inspiring a plethora of fanfiction art and memes Benton revealed that while the so-called Dreamling ship is not explicitly featured in the show the diversity in The Sandmans writers room and crew allowed a certain subtext to be present.

The Dreamling romance wasnt baked in they said However you have a ton of queer people in the writers room you have a gay man as a showrunner and you have actors who have chemistry.It seemed almost inevitable at that point.

Benton also highlighted that the Dream/Gadling relationship features tropes that fandom loves the broody distant mysterious man and the ray of sunshine puppy dog of a man whos just constantly asking to be friends. Given that both characters are immortal another draw of the pairing comes from being able to follow a love story spread across time and how disappointment can be overcome with a bit of hope and faith. It just kind of all exploded to become this new fan-favorite couple Benton remarked.

Thanks To The Sandmans Writers

While Benton may not have predicted how popular the Dreamling ship would become they said the foundations of the pairing can be partly credited to The Sandmans particularly diverse team of writers  a fact they are very grateful for. In another room with different writers different creators there might be a pull away from that story they said. I just feel very happy that this is the room this is the show and these are the people that it landed with. They were kind enough to allow this new side-of-romance story. It is real. It is definitely real.

Based on Neil Gaimans comic book series of the same name The Sandman follows the journey of Morpheus the King of Dreams as he makes an escape from his century-long imprisonment and begins a quest to restore his kingdom to its former glory. Other characters depicted in The Sandman alongside Sturridges Morpheus include Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie) Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) the Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook) John Dee (David Thewlis) Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) and more.