The Sandman has been a beloved saga for decades of Neil Gaiman readers. This is a rare comic book creation that tends to find people when they need it (just ask Mark Maron) and hit hard, and as a result, many things could have gone wrong (in the eyes of both Gaiman and fans) on the way to the screen. Heck, these terrible things already came too close to existence. Gaiman famously shut down a film adaptation by purposefully leaking “the worst script that I’ve ever read.” That was only the beginning of “30 years” of Gaiman fending off bad takes on his most renowned creation, but fortunately, that defensive status came to an end not too long ago.
First, The Sandman received a deserving three-part Audible treatment (during the pandemic) that continued to help Gaiman’s fans endure the punches delivered by life. Then the Netflix series arrived in August 2022 with resounding praise, especially for Death’s episode, “The Sound Of Her Wings.” The reception was so positive, in fact, that Netflix unveiled a bonus episode while the streaming service considered whether to renew the popular but expensive series. That (positive) decision finally came, so let’s talk it out.
Plot
The Sandman is an enormous creation, both as a printed work and in the TV medium, as well as a labor of love in non-linear storytelling. For that reason, it’s impossible to predict precisely which stories will be adapted in this show and when they will happen, but we have received clues, and also, expect this second season to feel personal to the viewer. That’s always the overwhelming response from Gaiman readers, and the Netflix series keeps that spirit alive.
We do know that in addition to seeing much more of Tom Sturridge’s Dream/Morpheus, we will some new siblings from The Endless, particularly Delirium. Also a strong possibility? Destruction and Destiny.
And from the looks of these episode titles reported thus far (via Redanian Intelligence), you would think that there’s much more of Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer on the way, too:
– “The Song of Orpheus”
– “More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold”
– “Brief Lives”
– “Family Blood”
– “The Ruler of Hell”
– “Season of Mists”
That assumption would be correct. Gaiman has explained to Variety that Lucifer’s revenge should figure prominently into what people shall see:
“I take too much fu*king pleasure in saying to people who do not know anything about what’s coming up in ‘Sandman,’ ‘If we do Season 2, we’re going to be having the rematch and Morpheus is going to be going back to hell. And Lucifer has some surprises in store that Morpheus is not expecting.’ And they are all like, ‘Ahh!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, and I know how that’s going to work, and you don’t. And everybody who’s ever read ‘Season of Mists’ knows how that’s going to work and you don’t. But that’s good because not everybody will have read ‘Season of Mists’ and this is going to be so much fun.”
Additionally, there will be more of Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s performance as Death than the first season gave us. That’s in line with the comic books and the Audible performances, where Kat Dennings also threw herself into the role. However, that’s also a response to Death’s first-season episode being a smash hit with viewers. Death — the TV version is very different than the comic-book and Audible versions but Howell-Baptiste’s version is tremendous — recently made an appearance in Netflix’s recent Dead Boy Detectives (an offshoot of The Sandman), and Howell-Baptiste did tell Collider that Neil intends to give viewers what they asked for in this season.
Will there be any more offshoots, perhaps even spin offs? Here’s what Gaiman told Variety about Johanna Constantine and Death possibilities:
“We also have the ‘Death’ books. It might be great to go off and do one of those as a sideline, in addition to which, anybody who has seen ‘Sandman’ Episode 3 has sidled over to us at some point or other in the last six months and said, ‘Do you think there’s any possibility that we could do a Johanna Constantine show with Jenna Coleman?’ And, oh my God, she’s a star and you just want to see her going through battling demons and destroying other people’s lives. So that’s in there, too. We can keep going on this for a long time to come.”
Cast
A key piece of the puzzle that has yet to be revealed is the casting of Delirium, who has been confirmed to appear in the second season. In all likelihood, we will soon see Destruction and Destiny as well.
Otherwise, casting has already been pitch perfect. Nobody could replace Tom Sturridge as Dream/Morpheus, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven, Kyo Ra as Rose Walker, or Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine. And as viewers damn well realize, that’s only the surface of what we’ve seen thus far.
Release Date
2025 will likely be when we will see more of Dream and his siblings together (and apart) again. That seems like a too-long wait, but Neil Gaiman and his fans already waited decades for this show in the first place. Also, that’s not an enormous turnaround considering that the show resumed post-strike filming in November 2023 and has extensive VFX work on its plate. If this season is as successful as the show’s debut, the wait will truly be worth it.
Trailer
We aren’t lucky enough to see Season 2 footage yet, but Dead Boy Detectives‘ first season takes a spin off from The Sandman comics with a few key cameos from the Netflix show. Yes, The Sandman universe is in process! Additionally, here’s a first-season deleted scene involving a conversation between Death and Dream/Morpheus.