Hopefully ‘The Sandman’ Season 2, Now Confirmed, Won’t Get Altered Carboned

According to a report from Deadline, The Sandman has been renewed by Netflix for season 2, as a leaked announcement went up from DC about the decision, apparently too early:

“The dream continues. [The Sandman] will return with new episodes based on multiple volumes of the Neil Gaiman graphic novel to explore even more stories of the Endless.”

While Netflix has not commented officially on this yet, the leak has essentially forced their hand, though the understanding is that this decision was already made. Netflix has mas made Neil Gaiman and the Sandman cast and crew positively sweat for three months now, with the debate over whether the “good” viewing hours for the series were enough to justify a second season. Apparently they were. But hopefully there are no caveats.

I already find myself worried about the Altered Carbon-ification of The Sandman. The first season of Altered Carbon is one of my favorite sci-fi TV series…ever. But when it was greenlit for season 2, in addition to the (albeit necessary) recasting of its lead, one of the core issues was a clear and obvious reduction in budget, shrinking the scope of the blockbuster sci-fi and really hurting the production. We have no idea if this will happen to the pricey Sandman, but I definitely hope not, given that we’ve seen this happened in the past. As in, “you can come back if you do a second season with 30% of the budget.” The show deserves better than that.

So, why renew it? This may have been more of a gut decision than a financial one. The Sandman was a highly praised adaptation of Gaiman’s work, one guided by Gaiman himself after decades of failed ideas and attempts to try and get the story from page to screen. Netflix needs to take its critical and audience hits where it can find them, and I think they have become conscious of their reputation for cancelling beloved series early because the algorithm or whatever doesn’t like them. If this was a few years ago, I bet The Sandman may have been killed outright. Now, it gets a second chance.

What we do not have is a release date for The Sandman season 2 yet, but late 2023, early 2024 seems the most likely. We know that writing had already started on season 2 well ahead of this renewal, and it’s good to know that all that work won’t be for nothing, at least. There are plenty more Sandman stories to tell, and I look forward to seeing more from the bizarre, compelling series. Netflix is making the right call here for a change.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.