dex14

DC tweeted it was renewed, but deleted the tweet.

DJariya

Deadline is confirming the renewal

Josh-da-man

The wording of the initial (and now deleted) tweet from DC Comics is curious...




It doesn't actually say it was renewed for a second season, only that it will return with new episodes based on "multiple volumes" of the graphic novel.

That sent my weasel-word detector into high alert.

The avoidance of mentioning a "second season" and the length of time it took Netflix to make a decision makes nervous about the prospect that they were working out a way to pocket cancel the series, like they could just trickle out a special or two every year, just enough to maintain their license and prevent the series from moving to another platform like Amazon Prime or Apple TV+.

Josh-da-man

I mean, it's strange that the official sources (DC Comics, Neil Gaiman, Netflix) are avoiding using the phrase "second season" and just saying things like "continues" and "additional episodes."

It's the press (like Deadline) and posters on social media who are referring to it being renewed for a second season while the official sources are going out of their way to avoid using the word "season." It's not that hard to say "renewed for a second season."

Jay G.

I think you're being paranoid. The fact that they cite "multiple volumes" for the new episodes means it's a sizeable number of episodes, probably on par with season 1, which covered 2 volumes of the comic.

Like, the Netflix blog post doesn't explicitly say "second season," but it also doesn't say "first season" or "season 1," just "first 11 episodes.
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articl...ent-new-season
Based on Neil's quote, it seems they're going to cover Season of Mists. I guess worst case, it could be they're doing a 'half season" of adapting one full storyline/volume, and then a few standalone stories, like the two from Dream Country they didn't do. So maybe only 5-6 episodes. That could be why they're avoiding saying "season 2," since people may expect a season of similar length, and feel Sandman's been "cut down," by Netflix not ordering as many episodes in the renewal.

It's all speculation though.

Josh-da-man

Of course I'm being paranoid. I really don't trust Netflix and their weird metrics and renewal procedures.

Apparently, the Sandman viewers didn't follow the typical Netflix binge pattern, they could do something like abandon traditional seasons for Sandman, and do four episodes of "Season of Mists," at one per day (similar to Cabinet of Curiosities), then wait a month or so, release another special like "Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope," then, a few months later, "A Game of You."

joeblow69

Personally I think this is a good idea. Having 2 completely disjointed stories stuffed into one season felt really strange to me.

Giantrobo

I'm just happy for the renewal. Frankly, even though Netflix hates Non-Bingers and punishes them with canceling shows...I did try to not binge Sandman, but got way too into the series and finished it pretty fast. I then had to fill the void with various Sandman podcasts which really broke down things. Once of which, "Endless: A Sandman Podcast" is great because it features Alisa Kwitney who worked as an Editor at DC/Vertigo. She is friends with Neil and worked directly with him as he was writing Sandman back in the 80's/90's so she brings some great perspective.

Jay G.

Yeah, I think it may be a presentation thing rather than budget, necessarily. Deliver one story arc per season going forward, with a few standalone episodes as well. Neil mentioned that Dream of a Thousand Cats was originally supposed to air much later due to the production time needed for an animated episode, but the delay in the live action production let it catch up. So if they plan and produce a standalone episode that takes a longer production and gets released separately, that's not necessarily a bad thing either.

And it's just a very weird perspective to me, to claim that Netflix is "killing" the show by producing more episodes, when the simplest most straightforward way to kill the show is to... just not make any more of it. It's not like Netflix is shy about killing underperforming shows.

Superman07

Interesting breakdown - thanks. I didn’t know the season was broken into different stories. I’ve never read them so assumed the first season was one long story.

I finally finished episode 5, and it was a doozy. Talk about a bottle episode. However, it was so well done. Tense throughout, and you could tell the directing choose to bathe all the scenes in red. As the episode progressed the red became more and more intense. Really well crafted.

What confused me is how it seemed to resolve the sin plot. Seemed as though he was going to be more important.

Mike86

Never finished this. I was enjoying it and I read the first trade paperback collection of the comics and enjoyed it too but stopped watching the show and never went back to it. Maybe my fiancée and I will it again at some point.

Josh-da-man

The rest of the Endless have been cast...

https://tvline.com/casting-news/the-...al-1235243861/




Esme Creed-Miles as Delirium. Adrian Lester as Destiny. Barry Sloane as D... uhm... The Prodigal.

Let's see...

Destiny doesn't really have a lot to do during the course of the story, and since his face is hidden by a monk's cowl, it's going to come down to the voice.

Esme Creed-Miles looks a little too clean and pretty in that photo play Delirium, but I ran a google image search on her and she can definitely pull off the look. Delirium (and the Prodigal brother) will feature prominently in an upcoming story arc, so they'll need to get those parts nailed.






Barry Sloane seems like a kind of generic choice to play the missing brother. I was hoping they might go with Kristofer Hivju, who absolutely resembles the character with and without the beard, but he might not be willing to cut off his beard. (The character is bearded in his appearances in antiquity, but clean-shaven in the modern day.)

Cellar Door

Esme Creed-Miles was good in the Hanna series on Amazon.