Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comes to an end this summer after its two-part second season. Though showrunner Allan Heinberg has maintained that two seasons has been the plan for years now, and that Netflix’s announcement of its impending conclusion alongside high-profile allegations against Gaiman was just unfortunate timing, a new bit of information about season two suggests perhaps that at one time, plans for more Sandman may have been in the cards.
To nobody’s surprise after the success of season one, The Sandman was renewed in late 2022. At the time, a Netflix press release promised “The Sandman world will continue to expand,” framing the then-unspecified amount of future episodes as a continuation of the story rather than a more traditional “season two is on the way!” announcement.
In January of this year, Heinberg confirmed that the second season would be The Sandman‘s finale, explaining that since the show had focused on the Dream character since the start, it only had one more season left of material to pull from the comics.
However, as fans of Gaiman’s Sandman comics well know, and as Netflix seemed to infer back in 2022, the story explores quite a vast world. The original series ran for 75 issues from 1989 to 1996. And the series adaptation, while anchored by Tom Sturridge’s Dream, has a pretty sprawling array of supporting characters—including Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death.
Today, Netflix announced episode titles for the The Sandman‘s second season: 11 entries we knew about (divided into two drops in July), as well as a surprise bonus episode focusing on Death.
Here’s all the titles, which hint at the storylines that’ll be adapted across season two, according to Variety:
July 3 Episodes
Chapter 1: “Season of Mists”
Chapter 2: “The Ruler of Hell”
Chapter 3: “More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold”
Chapter 4: “Brief Lives”
Chapter 5: “The Song of Orpheus”
Chapter 6: “Family Blood”
July 24 Episodes
Chapter 7: “Time and Night”
Chapter 8: “Fuel for the Fire”
Chapter 9: “The Kindly Ones”
Chapter 10: “Long Live the King”
Chapter 11: “A Tale of Graceful Ends”
Then, there’ll be a bonus drop on July 31: “The Sandman Presents: Death: The High Cost of Living.”
What do you make of the bonus episode? Does it hint at another Sandman season that may have been in the works before the show’s cancellation—or do you buy the explanation that two Dream-centric installations were always the plan all along?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
English (US) ·