The Sandman season 2: Release date speculation, cast and latest news
More Endless are coming.
Production on The Sandman season 2 is well under way at Netflix, meaning fans won't have to wait too long to see the adaptation back on Netflix.
Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie return to lead the ensemble cast enlisted to bring Neil Gaiman's iconic comics to screen, with the streamer confirming they'll be joined by some new faces.
Esmé Creed-Miles (The Doll Factory), Adrian Lester (Renegade Nell) and Barry Sloane (Passenger) have all been cast in major roles.
Yes, that's right, the rest of the Endless members will be part of season 2.
And, to drum up even more excitement, the show's official X (formerly known as Twitter) account has released a teaser clip where they're shown alongside Sturridge's Morpheus and the rest of the family.
Fans will be relieved, as content on The Sandman series has been scarce since that surprise bonus episode landed, despite Gaiman teasing a number of spin-offs.
But what can we expect from the upcoming sequel, and when will it arrive? Read on for everything we know so far!
The Sandman season 2 release date speculation
We don't have a confirmed release date just yet, but we'd guess The Sandman season 2 won't hit our screens until at least late 2024.
Season 2 has officially entered production, with the announcement coming on the 35th anniversary of the iconic graphic novel.
Gaiman shared the news with a letter, giving us some clues as to what to expect in season 2.
The final part of it reads: "This week we officially restart production on the next sequence of stories of The Sandman for Netflix. Genius show runner Allan Heinberg and the countless people in front of and behind the camera are building something endlessly special, and bringing these stories to life in a way that would once have been unimaginable.
"A journey is beginning that will take us from Destiny’s garden to Hell, from the Heart of the Dreaming to Ancient Greece and revolutionary France, and from there to places even I cannot quite imagine on the screen. I will be patient. Good things are coming.”
The first season of The Sandman took almost two years to produce, with filming starting in October 2020 and the finished project finally landing on Netflix in August 2022.
Of course, it likely didn't help matters that cameras started rolling at the height of the pandemic, which would have significantly slowed down the usual pace of the shoot.
It’s been well known for a while that executive producers Gaiman, Allan Heinberg and David S Goyer were determined to make season 2 happen.
In fact, back in November 2019, Neil Gaiman revealed that he was already plotting a second season.
"There are three of us, the showrunner Allan Heinberg, David Goyer and me, and we've just finished writing the first episode, and plotting and breaking down the first two seasons, so we'll see what happens next," Gaiman revealed to RadioTimes.com.
Season 1, which was over 30 years in the making, only drew from two out of 10 volumes of source material, meaning there’s still plenty of story to tell going forward.
"We’ve got as many [seasons] as they’ll let us have," Heinberg told NME at the show's premiere in London.
Who could return in The Sandman season 2 cast?
The Sandman comic books are a sprawling saga which sees numerous characters pass through it, but creator Gaiman has assured that viewers can expect reprisals from the vast majority of the season 1 cast.
It was also annouced in May 2024 that Esmé Creed-Miles, Adrian Lester and Barry Sloane had joined the cast as fellow Endless Delirium, Destiny and The Prodigal respectively.
The following cast members could potentially return for the second season.
- Tom Sturridge as Dream/Morpheus
- Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian
- Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne
- Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew the Raven
- Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine
- Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death
- Mason Alexander Park as Desire
- Donna Preston as Despair
- Kyo Ra as Rose Walker
- Eddie Karanja as Jed Walker
- John Cameron Mitchell as Hal Carter
- Stephen Fry as Gilbert
- Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall
- Sandra James Young as Unity Kinkaid
- Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain
- Asim Chaudhry as Abel
- Lily Travers as Barbie
- Richard Fleeshman as Ken
- David Thewlis as Doctor Destiny/John Burgess/Johnny Dee
- Mark Hamill as the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead
- Lenny Henry as the voice of Martin Tenbones
- Roger Allam as the voice of Lord Azazel
- Esmé Creed-Miles will play Delirium
- Adrian Lester will play Destiny
- Barry Sloane will play The Prodigal
"Part of the fun of Sandman is, if we get to season 2, you're going to meet a whole lot more people," Gaiman said in an interview with RadioTimes.com.
"And by the way, in season 2, you're also going to re-encounter pretty much everybody that you knew and loved in season 1."
The author continued: "Hob Gadling is there in Season of Mists [the fourth collection in The Sandman comic book series]. Desire is waiting for us, as well. The people that you love will all come back and there are lots of people that you haven't met yet to fall in love with."
These comments suggest returns for Ferdinand Kingsley and Mason Alexander Park, along with main players Tom Sturridge, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Gwendoline Christie and Vivienne Acheampong.
"Even Alex [Burgess] and Paul [McGuire]," added co-writer and executive producer Heinberg, confirming future plans for the LGBTQ+ couple.
Doctor Who star Jenna Coleman has also addressed her future in The Sandman, telling RadioTimes.com that Lady Johanna Constantine's fleeting appearance in season 1 was a "seed" for bigger things to come.
On his character's somewhat ambiguous fate, Boyd Holbrook said: "I had a great experience on this. And I think we'd all love to continue The Sandman. It's the universe that just keeps going on and on... I believe that The Corinthian is reincarnated at a certain point in time in the comic, so we'll see."
What could happen in The Sandman season 2 plot?
As suggested by The Sandman ending, the next season of the show would primarily focus on the fourth and fifth volumes of the graphic novel, titled Season of Mists and A Game of You respectively.
Gaiman confirmed to RadioTimes.com: "Our plans for the second season is the second two graphic novels, which technically, in this case, will be books four and five, with some bits of the short stories in book three scattered among some other stuff."
The first of these sees Dream return to Hell, where Lucifer Morningstar is waiting for him, unleashing chaos by abdicating her throne and starting a new life on Earth – freeing her demons in the process.
The second focuses on a supporting character from season 1, Barbie (as played by Lily Travers), who makes a long-overdue return to her fantasy world in the Dreaming following an intervention from mythical steed Martin Tenbones.
Given how faithful the first season was to both Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll's House, we'd expect a potential follow-up to stick rather closely to the source material.
However, Netflix bosses have revealed that they're not referring to the upcoming episodes as "season 2".
Friedlander’s cryptically told Variety: “There are decisions that haven’t been made, but we are considering batching approaches. Everything’s on the table when it comes to ‘Sandman.’ It’s an innovative show.”
Is there a trailer for The Sandman season 2?
Yes, Netflix has released some teaser footage, showing Dream’s Helm rising from a sea of shifting sand. Watch below:
The Sandman is available to stream on Netflix.
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