The Sandman director teases season 2 on Netflix: “We know what worked”

For decades, Neil Gaiman’s seminal graphic novel The Sandman was deemed unfilmable. The story follows Morpheus, aka Dream, aka the Sandman, aka a lot of things, the ruler of the Dream Realm, as he interacts with beings both mortal and immortal. The story’s irreverent, genre-hopping style always seemed a little too daunting for a live-action adaptation.

However, last year, Netflix did the impossible and brought the comic to the small screen, and they did it in style. Season 1 of The Sandman was a massive success, posting solid numbers and getting high praise from critics and casual viewers alike. And yes, season 2 is officially on the way. In fact, the new episodes began filming in June of this year before being put on hold due to the Hollywood writer’s strike, which has since been resolved. We’re still waiting on the actors strike, though.

According to director Jamie Childs, who worked on season 1 and is returning season 2, the team is ready and eager to go again once the actors strike comes to a conclusion. “We’ve now got all that prior knowledge and we’re coming at it again, like a team who’ve done it before,” he told ScreenRant. “It just feels really good. The momentum was, it’s unfortunate about the strikes because we were right in the swing of it.”

"It was six weeks into filming, it was going really, really well. And to be excited about one bit, it’s quite hard to say because honestly every day is different on that show."

Before filming stopped, fans were able to snap a few photos of actors shooting on location, like this one from Durdle Door, England featuring Tom Sturridge as Morpheus and a mystery actor as  his son Orpheus.

What can we expect from The Sandman season 2?

In typical Sandman fashion, the new season will jump between genres. “It’s a bit like Jackdaw where every sequence was different every day,” Childs explained. “We’re doing Greek tragedy, and then we’re doing cyberpunk, and we’re doing contemporary drama, or we’re doing cat and mouse chess stuff. It’s honestly it’s such a fun show to work on for that reason.”

Season 2 will cover the Greek tragedy “The Song of Orpheus,” which Gaiman reworks to fit within The Sandman mythos. Chances are you know the story already; it’s been around for thousands of years and was adapted as the musical Hadestown.

The season will also cover the “Season of Mists” story arc from the comic, where (SPOILER ALERT) Lucifer abandons Hell and bequeaths the place to Morpheus.

The cast and crew have a tall order to fill, but Childs isn’t worried. “It’s like we’ve done it before,” he said. “We know what worked and didn’t. We know now coming at it, it was scary coming out at the first time because it’s like, we’re the first time putting that on screen and everyone who’s tried historically has not managed it yet.”

We’re likely still a long way away from seeing The Sandman return to our screens. Let’s hope it premieres sometime in early 2025. In the meantime, Netflix is close to releasing its adaptation of Dead Boy Detectives, which is confirmed to take place in the same universe as The Sandman. The future of this franchise is very exciting indeed!

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