The 2000s Fantasy Epic Adventure On Streaming With Multiple Marvel Stars

Stardust was co-written by Vaughn with Jane Goldman and adapted from Neil Gaiman’s 1999 novel of the same name. The film follows a man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) who finds himself in the magical kingdom of Stormhold, where he finds a fallen star to give to his love, Victoria (Sienna Miller). However, he is surprised to learn that the star is actually a woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes), who is also being hunted by witches and the princes of the kingdom.

Stardust has quite a stacked cast that includes Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Mark Strong, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole, Ian McKellen, Henry Cavill, Ben Barnes, and more.

Fans of superhero movies will notice quite a few familiar names in this cast list, like Charlie Cox, who played Daredevil in the Netflix Marvel shows (as well as more recent MCU shows). You also have Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Janet Van Dyne/Wasp in the MCU, Ian McKellen, who played Magneto in the Fox X-Men films, Ben Barnes, who played Jigsaw in The Punisher, Mark Strong, who played Sinestro in Green Lantern, and Henry Cavill, who played Superman in numerous DCEU films.

This is fitting because Neil Gaiman’s original Stardust was first published as a comic mini-series by DC Comics in 1997 before it was republished as a novel in 1999. There was even a film adaptation for the project optioned back in 1998 at Miramax, but it fell through, and Gaiman wasn’t interested in greenlighting an adaptation for years after. Finally, Gaiman started talking to Terry Gilliam and Matthew Vaughn about a possible adaptation, with Vaughn eventually acquiring the option to develop the film in 2005.

Eventually, Vaughn was given the green light to write, direct, and produce Stardust with a decent $70 to $88.5 million budget to make it happen. The end result was decidedly a bit less dark than Gaiman’s novel and compressed elements of the story but it was overall a solid and well-reviewed effort. Gaiman also acknowledged the need for the changes and commented on the fact that the film had a different ending, saying that he liked the ending better for the film and the book ending better for the book.

Stardust was a moderate success in the end, bringing in $137 million at the box office and getting mostly positive reviews. If you like Neil Gaiman and fantasy, then it’s definitely an enjoyable watch, even if it’s not a 1:1 adaptation of the book. You can stream it now on platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Fubo, Paramount+, and more.