‘The Sandman' Showrunner Still Maintains 2 Seasons Was the Plan All Along

Gizmodo

4 days ago

The Netflix series based on the comic co-created by the recently controversial Neil Gaiman returns for its two-part final season in July.
Hollywood is no stranger to doing damage control when a creative person does or is accused of something so distressing it affects the projects they're associated with. Think Ezra Miller, Jonathan Majors, or Neil Gaiman—the latter being a particularly notable case because when he was first hit with sexual abuse allegations, which he has denied, he was involved with multiple TV series. That includes two much-loved titles: Good Omens on Prime Video and The Sandman on Netflix.
Good Omens' solution was to have Gaiman, co-author of the original novel and showrunner/creator of the series, first step back from being involved with production on what had already been confirmed as the show's third and final season. Then, it was announced that in lieu of a full third season, the Amazon show would close out its story with a single 90-minute special.
The situation is a little different with The Sandman. After a very well-received first season, the show was renewed in 2022 and a Netflix press release shared at the time promised 'the Sandman world will continue to expand' with 'with more episodes and stories to be adapted from multiple Sandman graphic novels.' The announcement didn't specify how many seasons that might include.
However, in late January 2025, Netflix confirmed season two would be The Sandman's final outing. In a Variety story released at that time, showrunner Allan Heinberg shared a statement that read in part: '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.'
In April, fans learned that The Sandman's two-part final season would arrive in July, wrapping up the show for good. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Heinberg re-emphasized his earlier claim that two seasons of Sandman was something the team had been planning around for some time: 'It was a decision we made three years ago.'
He framed Netflix's announcement, made at the height of Gaiman-adjacent negative press, that The Sandman would return for a second and final season as 'unfortunate timing, for sure.' He told the magazine the Gaiman stories started to hit just as The Sandman was close to finishing production and moving into postproduction.
'I can't say that it affected our process, which is scheduled years in advance,' Heinberg said. 'It's been in the periphery of my experience and the background of my experience, but it hasn't been part of the world of the making of the show, if that makes sense. Every production is its own little island.'
The Sandman season two drops its first block of episodes July 3, with the final block arriving July 24.