In bringing audiences back to the waking world earlier than expected, Netflix has announced that due to a purported lack of “remaining Dream material from the comics”, the upcoming second season of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman will be its last.
The decision to bring Dream’s story to an end was first announced courtesy of series showrunner Allan Heinberg, who broke the news with fans via a personal message shared to Netflix’s official website and relevant social media accounts.
“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,” explained Heinberg of the series’ impending end. “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.”
As previously reported, the past few months have seen six women go on the record and claim that the popular author subjected them to heinous physical and sexual abuses, with his accused actions ranging from non-consensual fetish play to outright rape.
While the situation continues to develop, for his part, Gaiman has wholesale denied the accusations, concluding a recent blog post with the declaration, “Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality.”
“I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made,” he added. “I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.”
Though neither Netflix nor Heinberg either cited them as a cause for the series’ end or even mentioned them, speculation suggests that it was Gaiman’s recently being of accused of sexual assault by multiple women that drove this move rather than than a ‘lack of material’.
After all, the original run of Gaiman’s The Sandman Vol. 2 eventually came to encompass a total of 75 mainline issues and five specials, with all but the seven narratively independent issues of the Fables & Reflections arc centering on Dream and his ethereal journey.
Thus, with the premiere season covering the first 18 issues of the original Vertigo comic book series and the second’s confirmed 12 episode order suggesting that it will at least cover the next 10 issues and their tale of Dream’s temporary ownership of Hell, that leaves at least 45 issues of specific “Dream material” that Netflix will be leaving on the table – an outcome that would objectively never happen to such a popular series without extenuating circumstances.
(That’s not to say that the series would have undoubtedly covered the entirety of the original material, but rather that should Gaiman have not found himself in hot water, it’s likely that Netflix would have produced at least one more season of the show.)
Notably, this is not the first project based on Gaiman’s work to be brought to a premature end following the public raising of the allegations against the author.
On January 19th, March Bernadin, the writer of Dark Horse Comics’ adaptation of Gaiman’s Anasi Boys novel announced on his BlueSky account that “Last week, Anansi Boys 7 hit stands. It will be the last issue. Dark Horse will not release a trade.”
Issuing their own statement a few days later via their official Twitter account, the publisher themselves added, “Dark Horse takes seriously the allegations against Neil Gaiman and we are no longer publishing his works. Confirming that the Anansi Boys comic series and collected volume have been cancelled.”
Further, the previously-funded Kickstarter for an illustrated adaptation of Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens announced on January 30th that not only will the former “not receive any proceeds” from the campaign, but the entire project is now solely “run by, and financially connected to, the Terry Pratchett Estate only.”
Likewise, Amazon’s confirmed in October 2024 that due to Gaiman’s situation, they would be reducing the finale of their Good Omens series adaptation from a full third season to a single 90-minute special.
At current, the second and final season of Netflix’s The Sandman is on track to make its debut sometime in 2025.