Perchance to Dream (of the Endless)
A few thoughts on the recent development concerning the Sandman streaming series.
Two days ago, it was announced that the upcoming second season of The Sandman, the Netflix fantasy series based on the comic book of the same name, would also mark the end of the show.
Per an official statement from the showrunner Allan Heinberg, this was always the case, but multiple fans have questioned the veracity of that claim, due to the recent allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against the comic book’s creator Neil Gaiman, a controversy which has affected other productions (the third season of Good Omens was retooled to become a single 90-minute episode, with Gaiman no longer serving as the lead creative). And yet, there’s reason to believe the show was indeed coming to an end regardless.
The first clue can be traced back to the fall of 2022, when Gaiman – then a very active tweeter – replied to fan inquiries about a second season of the show by saying Netflix expected a certain (unspecified) amount of views within the first month of release (in The Sandman’s case, August 5 to September 5, although that timeline doesn’t account the special episode released separately from the rest of the season on August 19) to commit to a renewal.
This suggested, despite the show’s apparent success, not enough people were watching at that point, which would also explain why the formal announcement of a second season didn’t arrive until November 2022, three months after the debut of the series. So it’s not far-fetched to assume the streamer may have renewed the show on the condition it would wrap up the story sooner than expected, especially given Netflix’s reputation for canceling most of its Originals after three seasons or less as a cost-cutting measure (going beyond three entails certain pay raises for cast and crew), especially if the production is an expensive one.
Secondly, while The Sandman does consist of 75 issues, traditionally collected in ten trade paperbacks (which is the numbering I will be using in this article), not all of them connect to the ongoing storyline concerning the protagonist, Dream of the Endless. Season 1 adapted Volumes 1 and 2, while the special episode took its cue from two of the four stories published in Volume 3, one of which sets up elements that will pay off further down the line.
If one assumes the plan was to focus on the main storyline, that left Volumes 4, 7 and 9, over the course of a couple of seasons at most. And the casting announcements for season 2, made in the summer of 2024 after filming was almost done, confirmed the new cast members would be playing characters like Orpheus and the Prodigal, both of whom are key players in Volume 7. So, unless major liberties were being taken, it stands to reason the second batch of episodes was jumping ahead to the end of the Dream arc.
So yes, it would indeed seemThe Sandman was not long for the streaming world to begin with. Unfortunately, the timing of the announcement makes it impossible to entirely separate a pre-existing creative choice from the behind-the-scenes scandal that is likely to overshadow the second season once it eventually drops.