The second season of The Sandman, adapted by Neil Gaiman's seminal comic book series, will drop sometime this year on Netflix. A new poster labels it "the final season":
The Sandman will end this year on Netflix, obviously pic.twitter.com/yJK05oLZqR
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) January 31, 2025
Gaiman's original comic revolves around Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge), the immortal lord of dreams. That comic is very long and could easily fill up more seasons of TV. Showrunner Allan Heinberg made a statement to Variety explaining why the show was wrapping up so quickly:
"‘The Sandman’ series has always been focused exclusively on Dream’s story, and back in 2022, when we looked at the remaining Dream material from the comics, we knew we only had enough story for one more season. We are extremely grateful to Netflix for bringing the team all back together and giving us the time and resources to make a faithful adaptation in a way that we hope will surprise and delight the comics’ loyal readers as well as fans of our show."
If you've watched the show or read the comic, you know this statement is nonsense. Neither the show nor the comic have "always been focused exclusively on Dream's story"; he's the main character, but there are multiple episodes of the show where Dream barely appears, and some of the most beloved issues of the comic explore fascinating side stories. I don't blame Allan Heinberg for wanting to spin what's happening, but he's not doing it in a very believable job of it.
So why is The Sandman actually ending so early? You might think it has something to do with the multiple sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman, but we saw clear signs that the show was skipping over huge swaths of the comic in the middle of last year, before the Gaiman allegations were widely talked about. And Variety reports that the plan was to end The Sandman with season 2 back when production began in the summer of 2023, likely because neither Netflix nor Warner Bros. Television were getting enough returns on the "pricey" fantasy series.
That said, if Netflix had gone ahead and committed to adapting the whole comic over many seasons of TV, it likely would have had to reconsider after the allegations against Gaiman blew up. I can see a scenario where the show would have just been cut off in the middle of the story. At least this way, it will have some sort of ending.
We don't have an exact release date for The Sandman season 2 as of yet, but it's coming this year.
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