The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman says planning is already underway for season 2 of the upcoming Netflix series based on his comic books. Gaiman's work has been increasingly adapted for the small screen in recent years, with Good Omens becoming an Amazon Prime series and American Gods being turned into a Starz TV show. Even Lucifer (which aired on Fox before moving to Netflix) is based on a character that Gaiman co-created. Now, what many consider to be his greatest work, The Sandman, is also becoming a television series.
Because of the sheer amount of source material (75 comic book issues published from 1989-96), the long-developing Sandman movie adaptation at Warner Bros. had a difficult time getting off the ground, and has since been abandoned entirely. Instead, it's now being re-imagined as an original series for Netflix, with Gaiman serving as an executive producer alongside David S. Goyer (Krypton) and showrunner Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman). And according to Gaiman, the three are already making plans that go beyond the show's first season.
In an interview with Radio Times, Gaiman confirmed he, Goyer, and Heinberg are actively working together on The Sandman, adding "we’ve just finished writing the first episode, and plotting and breaking down the first two seasons, so we’ll see what happens next". The Sandman was ordered to series in July, but has yet to formally start casting or announce any creatives beyond its core three. That's to say, Gaiman and his team are getting a proper head-start on season 2 by planning things this early in pre-production.
Although The Sandman doesn't seem to be a lock for season 2 just yet, there's no harm in the show's architects figuring out which parts of the comics the season will be based on. Gaiman previously confirmed the show's first season will be eleven episodes long and cover the first of The Sandman's paperback collections, "Preludes & Nocturnes", "and a little bit more". Assuming the plan is to cover (roughly) a collection a season in the beginning, that means season 2 will adapt "The Doll's House", in which Morpheus (aka. Dream) tracks down the escaped dreams that fled the Dreaming when he was being imprisoned by occultists searching for immortality (something season 1 will explore). Season 2 could even draw from the third collection, "Dream Country", which is actually a series of short stories rather than an overarching narrative.
Netflix has become somewhat infamous of late for cancelling shows after three seasons (with exceptions, like Stranger Things), so it's possible Gaiman and his team are taking that under consideration and planning to cover a lot more ground in season 2 than season 1. This is all assuming the series gets more than a single season, which (again) isn't guaranteed just yet. Keeping that in mind, it's quite likely The Sandman season 1 will perform strongly enough for Netflix to want more, given the popularity of both its source material and other Gaiman adaptations of late. It might not be endless (forgive the pun), but the show shouldn't be a one-and-done offering, either.
The Sandman does not have a premiere date yet.
Source: Radio Times