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The Sandman, the iconic, and beloved comic series from fantasy king, Neil Gaiman, and DC Comics imprint, Vertigo has finally hit our screens.
It’s been a decades long wait for fans of the seminal series but it’s been absolutely worth it. The show is every bit as emotional, shocking, moving, and visually beautiful as the comics it hails from.
Also Read: ‘Sandman’ Season 2 Confirmed
Watching the show, you would be forgiven for thinking that Dream and his family of Endless, along with the dreams and nightmares that surround them, had stepped off the page right on to your screen.
Such is the spell, the dream if you will, that the show casts on us all across its first 10 episodes.
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Latest News On Season 2
24/08/2022
In some, hopefully, very good news for the chances of The Sandman being renewed for a second season by Netflix. The series’ creator Neil Gaiman tweeted the below image last night confirming that for the week of August 15th to August 21st. The Sandman was Netflix’s number one watched show for the 3rd week in a row with an astounding 77,240,000 views at the time of the survey.
This is incredible news for fans as it means that the show which debuted on Netflix on August 5th has been the number one watched show on the streaming platform every week since its release.
If this trend continues, we should hopefully have confirmation from Netflix of a second season renewal around the beginning of September.
23/08/2022
In a series of tweets and retweets over the last few days, Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has made it clear that in order for Netflix to commission a second series of the show. Fans will need to watch and rewatch every episode in full in addition to recommending it to as many friends and family members as they can.
As it is these viewership numbers that will influence Netflix’s decision making over the next few weeks regarding whether to greenlight a second season or not:
It’s also important to note Gaiman’s retweet of the reply tweet sent to him by fellow author, Joe Hill. As Hill, like Gaiman, is the creator of a beloved comic book series, Locke & Key, which has also been adapted into a live action television series by Netflix and is now on its 3rd season.
So if anyone knows what it takes to get a season renewal from Netflix, you can be assured that it is Hill.
For now though, all we can do is keep watching and re-watching the series and recommending it as much as possible to everyone we know.
Especially as Gaiman confirms in this reply tweet below that should a second series be greenlit. We will be seeing a lot more of Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death and Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer.
Which, while not an outright confirmation, definitely adds further fuel to my speculation later in this article that Season 2 will feature an adaptation of the comic’s “Seasons of Mists” story arc featuring the Keys to Hell.
19/08/2022
Just as we thought we’d have to wait at least another year, if not two, for more stories of The Dreaming and The Waking worlds.
Netflix surprises us this morning with a brand new 64 minute episode comprising two beloved stand alone stories from the comics.
“A Dream of A Thousand Cats”
Taken from Sandman #18, this opening story of Episode 11 is entirely animated with a beautiful combination of CG animation and rotoscoping of live action actors for the human roles.
In it, we see a young kitten, roused from her bed, while her owners sleep, so that she may accompany an older cat as they travel to a speaking event hosted by a female cat of some renown.
When they reach the event, they find it is in an overgrown graveyard with hundreds of other cats in attendance.
All eager to hear the tale that the speaker, The Prophet (played by Sandra Oh), has to tell them…
This portion of the episode features a stellar cast including David and Georgia Tennant as Don and Laura Lynn, the kitten’s human owners.
Rosie Day as The Tabby Kitten, David Gyasi as The Grey Cat, Joe Lycett as The Black Cat, James McAvoy as The Golden Haired man, Michael Sheen as Paul, Anna Lundberg as Marion, Nonso Anozie as Wyvern, Diane Morgan as Gryphon, Tom Wu as Hippogriff.
As well as Sandman creator, Neil Gaiman who appears as Crow/Skull Bird, and Tom Sturridge reprising the role of Dream/Morpheus.
Speaking of this story with Variety.com, its Director Hisko Hulsing explains:
“We endeavored to make the animated version of ‘A Dream of a Thousand Cats’ as mesmerizing and hypnotic as we could by utilizing the magic of real oil paintings on canvas,”
“We combined the paintings with classically drawn 2D animation, based on realistic 3D animation of telepathic cats in order to create a trippy world that feels both grounded and dreamy at the same time. Untold Studios in London created the breathtaking 3D animation of the cats. The wonderful 2D animation, oil paintings and stylizing were all done at Submarine Studios in Amsterdam.”
“Calliope”
Taken from Sandman #17, this story is told entirely in live action, and as the title suggests, focuses on the Greek Goddess, Muse, and former Wife of Dream and Mother of their son, Calliope (played by Melissanthi Mahut).
The story begins with a lecture given by struggling author, Richard Madoc (played by Arthur Darvill). Followed by Madoc travelling to the home of successful but now forgotten fellow author, Erasmus Fry (played by Derek Jacobi), who reveals to Madoc the secret of his decades long success, the imprisoned Calliope…
This story also stars Kevin Harvey as Larry and Anita Suman as Nora with Tom Sturridge once more playing Dream/Morpheus.
In addition to the returns of Nina Wadia, Dinita Gohil, and Souad Faress as The Fates Mother, Maiden, and Crone respectively.
Predicted Release Date?
Given how spellbinding this first season has been, it’s no surprise that the show is now trending as the top show in 89 countries across the world.
With a legion of fans new and old, eagerly waiting for any news from Netflix or the show’s creators about when they can expect Season 2 and what they can expect to see in it.
As we wait for Netflix to confirm these details, and as there has been no official confirmation yet of when production on the show is due to start.
We can instead look at what we do know. As, courtesy of an article published by the Radio Times.
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We know that production/filming of the first series began in October 2020, and with the show’s release on August 5th 2022.
Taking this into account, and that film and TV productions, normally, take anything from 18 months to 24 months or longer from first planning to final release.
It’s most likely that Season 2 will release around August 2024. As this allows Netflix to release the second season without fear of clashing with Disney’s Marvel Universe releases for 2024.
As so far, Kevin Feige, head of Marvel Studios has confirmed that the “Daredevil: Born Again” TV show will see release in Spring 2024. While “The Thunderbolts” TV show will see release on July 26th 2024.
What We Could See In The Sandman Season 2?
While exact plot details are still a tightly guarded secret.
We do know from this interview with Gaiman, back in November 2019 for RadioTimes.com, that Season 2 was planned and plotted at the same time as as the first 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.
More recently, Gaiman confirmed in this quote from another interview with 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 graphic novels Gaiman is referring to in the quote above are the trade paperback volumes “The Sandman: Seasons of Mists” and “The Sandman: A Game of You”.
The Sandman: Seasons of Mists
This volume collects issues 21 to 28 of “The Sandman” comic series and focuses on the story of Dream’s former lover, the African Queen, Nada, shown very briefly in Episode 4: “A Hope In Hell”.
When Dream goes to hell to retrieve his helm and is taunted by Lucifer as he is made to walk past the cell where Nada is imprisoned.
The story sees Dream after an argument with Desire during a meeting of the Endless family (Dream, Death, Desire, Despair, Destiny, Destruction, and Delirium) go to Hell to retrieve Nada.
This results in Dream being given the keys to Hell, which in turn leads to gods of every pantheon such as Odin and Loki of Norse mythology, and Anubis and Bast of Egyptian mythology, to name a few, all arriving in Hell seeking Morpheus to give them control of Hell.
There is also a short story set during the events in Hell called, “”In Which the Dead Return; and Charles Rowland Concludes His Education”, focusing on the ghosts of two schoolboys at a traditional English boarding school.
However, I don’t expect to see this story given too much focus outside of potentially a single episode, similar to Season 1’s Episode 5: “24/7”.
The Sandman: A Game of You
This volume collects issues 32 to 37 of “The Sandman” comic series and focuses on the character of Barbie, first shown with her fiance, Ken, in Episode 7: “The Doll’s House”.
This story shows that after the events of the first season, Barbie no longer dreams, and is now living in an apartment block with her best friend, Wanda. In addition to their neighbours, Hazel and Foxglove, Thessaly, and George.
The story sees the return of Martin Tenbones, Barbie’s creature companion in her dreams, who assisted her in her adventure.
Martin travels to the world of The Waking (our world) to give Barbie a quartz amulet which allows Barbie to return to the fantasy land of her dreams.
Where she faces a mysterious new villain known as “The Cuckoo”.
Barbie has several adventures in this land, with her final adventure leading to Dream being summoned and having to take action regarding the land of her dreams.
Another important point of the story is that Barbie’s best friend, Wanda, is a transgender woman, and given how the story ends in the comics, viewers should fully expect to see Season 2 explore this in Wanda’s character and how both The Waking, and The Dreaming worlds treat her.
Other Possible Stories?
At the moment, we only know for certain that Season 2 will cover the events of “Seasons of Mist” and “A Game of You”.
But, given the positive reaction to Jenna Coleman’s, Johanna Constantine.
It is entirely possible that we will see more of either modern day Johanna as she becomes drawn into the events of Season 2.
Or, the season may possibly end with a set up for Season 3, which will presumably adapt the next volumes of the story, and could very likely introduce Dream’s son, Orpheus.
If this is the story direction for Season 3, then it could be that we see an adaptation of the comic story “Thermidor”.
Which sees Johanna’s ancestor, glimpsed in Episode 06: “The Sound of Her Wings”, travel to Revolutionary France in order to rescue Orpheus, who is only briefly glimpsed in the story.
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