Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman has done well with Netflix viewers since its release on August 5, 2022. It dethroned Virgin River’s fourth season from the number one spot and logged 70 million hours viewed in its first three days. It has remained at the number one spot for two weeks. However, Neil Gaiman says that this does not guarantee a second season.
Due to the necessary world-building required to recreate such places as The Dreaming, and well…Hell from Gaiman’s comic books, The Sandman is an expensive show to make. And, as has been reported in the last few months, Netflix is currently not in a great place financially. On Twitter, someone asked Gaiman about the future of The Sandman, and said; “With all the talk of it being a top streamed show all over for the past two plus weeks, I don’t understand why season two is even a question.”
Gaiman responded; “Because Sandman is a really expensive show. And for Netflix to release the money to let us make another season we have to perform incredibly well. So yes, we’ve been the top show in the world for the last two weeks. That still may not be enough.”
It just goes to show that in today’s precarious streaming world, nothing is a guarantee. With the recent haemorrhaging of TV shows from HBO Max, it’s an extremely vulnerable time to be making television for one of the streaming services. Fortunately, Gaiman’s Good Omens starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen has a second season in the can, which will be coming to Prime Video.
Fans of The Sandman comic book series will be keen to see more from the TV series, as the first season only adapted the first two volumes of fourteen. We did get a surprise bonus two-part episode, which covered two dark stories from the series – A Dream of a Thousand Cats, and Calliope.
While we wait to discover the fate of The Sandman, check out our guide to the best fantasy movies.