‘The Sandman’ Ending With Season 2 at Netflix
Netflix will close out its comic-book series The Sandman with the forthcoming second season.
The streamer made the announcement on social media Friday, saying the second season — due sometime later this year — will conclude the story. The decision to end the show also comes as Neil Gaiman, who created the Sandman comic and developed and executive produces the series, has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by several women. Gaiman has denied the allegations.
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Sources say the second season of The Sandman will conclude the story arc for Dream (Tom Sturridge), the show’s central character. Production on the season wrapped last summer.
“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,” showrunner Allan Heinberg said in a statement. “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.”
Season one of The Sandman premiered in August 2022 to largely positive reviews from critics and fairly strong audience numbers: It spent seven weeks in Netflix’s worldwide top 10 (based on the company’s internal data) and six weeks on the Nielsen streaming charts in the United States.
Season one was based on the first 16 issues of The Sandman comic; there are 75 in all. In announcing a season two pickup for the show in November 2022, Netflix said the coming story would be “adapted from multiple The Sandman graphic novels.”
The conclusion for The Sandman follows that of another series based on Gaiman’s work, Good Omens at Amazon’s Prime Video. The latter will wrap with a single feature-length episode later this year after two six-episode seasons in 2019 and 2023. Prime Video also still plans to release Anansi Boys, also based on a Gaiman novel, which like The Sandman has completed production.
Gaiman was accused of sexual misconduct by several women last year in a podcast titled Master, produced by Tortoise Media. On Jan. 13, a New York magazine story detailed several more allegations against the writer. Gaiman denied the allegations in a blog post, writing, “I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever. I went back to read the messages I exchanged with the women around and following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive. These messages read now as they did when I received them — of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again. At the time I was in those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.”
Dark Horse Comics subsequently said it would stop publishing comic adaptations of Gaiman’s work (including Anansi Boys). Disney has paused work on a film adaptation of the author’s Graveyard Book.
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