Picture: Netflix / Warner Bros. Television
Netflix’s The Sandman is set to have a quiet 2024, but that’s not to say there aren’t exciting things happening. This year will see filming on season 2 wrap, as well as plenty of cast announcements, and also the premiere of Dead Boy Detectives — a show set in the ‘Sandman’ Universe!
Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic, The Sandman, premiered on Netflix in 2022. The series follows Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge), ruler of The Dreaming — the place we go when we fall asleep. When he is captured, his kingdom crumbles in his absence, and his three totems of power — his helm, ruby and pouch of sand — all fall into dangerous hands. When he escapes, he embarks on a quest to reclaim his lost totems, one that will take him to Hell and back… literally.
As the series goes on, we learn more about Dream while he tries to deal with the trials and tribulations that have occurred over his vast existence. Sandman is a deep and thought-provoking series, beautifully weaving together a number of genres, from horror to heartwarming.
Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022
It took Netflix a few months after premiering Sandman actually to renew the series for more episodes, and even though season 2 is green-lit, the structure still remains in question. How many episodes are there? We don’t know. There are reports that Netflix is considering releasing new episodes in batches, to better accommodate for the genre-hopping nature of the show.
What’s the Filming Status for The Sandman Season 2
The Sandman season 2 started filming in Dorset, England, in June 2023. However, production was quickly put on pause due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Shooting later resumed on November 27th 2023, and has been ongoing since. The cast teased the return to work back in November, with star Mason Alexander Park (Desire) posting this behind-the-scenes image of them alongside co-star Tom Sturridge.
Credit: Netflix
Most recently, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton was hired out for filming. According to Brighton and Hove News, the hire is confirmed to be for The Sandman season 2, and shooting will take place from February 19. Naturally, fans are already theorizing about what the area could mean for the story. Popular suggestions include the location of Destiny’s garden or, indeed, the venue of the iconic Endless family meeting.
https://twitter.com/SandmanNews/status/1756034442630504603
It’s certainly a stunning piece of architecture that aligns perfectly with the aesthetic of Sandman.
Will The Sandman season 2 release in 2024?
It’s looking unlikely that we’ll get the new season of The Sandman in 2024 at the moment. Netflix just recently unveiled over 90 new and returning shows coming up this year, and The Sandman was notably absent, likely meaning that the show won’t be returning to our screens until 2025.
Casting Announcements Likely Coming in 2024 for The Sandman season 2
The Sandman season 2 will see the return of all the show’s core characters: Dream (Tom Sturridge), Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), Mervyn (Mark Hamill), Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie), Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar), Abel (Asim Chaudhry), Death Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Despair (Donna Preston), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), and so on.
Additionally, it’ll also see the introduction of some of the comic’s most beloved characters. We’ll finally meet the rest of Dream’s siblings — Destruction, Delirium, Destiny — and his son, Orpheus.
No casting announcements have been made yet, although Barry Sloane (known for voicing Captain Price in the Call of Duty franchise) reportedly plays Destruction. Plus, Irish actor Ruairi O’Connor (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) has been spotted on set in the role of Orpheus. Other actors cast in unknown roles include Amber Rose Revah, Indya Moore, Charlotte Bate, and Daphne Alexander.
Here’s your full list of characters we can expect to be revealed in cast announcements later this year:
- Orpheus
- Eurydice
- Hades
- Persephone
- Thor
- Loki
- Odin
- Wanda
- Delirium
- Destiny
- Destruction
- Auberon
- Titania
What will season 2 of The Sandman be about?
Similar to season one, The Sandman season 2 will continue to jump between genres, but the new episodes will have a larger focus on larger mythology. It is expected to cover the Season of Mists story arc from the comics, in which (SPOILER) Lucifer decides to close down Hell and hands the key to the realm to Morpheus, who must find a potential suitor to inherit the abandoned realm.
Moreover, we’ll meet fan-favourite Delirium in the Brief Lives arc, where she seeks out Dream to help her locate their missing sibling, Destruction.
Gaiman has previously rhapsodised about some of the things we can expect from season 2. “A journey is beginning that will take us from Destiny’s garden to Hell, from the Heart of the Dreaming to Ancient Greece and revolutionary France, and from there to places even I cannot quite imagine on the screen,” he wrote in a letter to fans. “I will be patient. Good things are coming.”
Season 2 won’t premiere until 2025. However, Netflix may reveal further details this year. Look out for the streamer’s annual TUDUM and Geeked Week events, which is where we’re most likely to hear news first.
Dead Boy Detectives is coming in 2024!
We may not be getting any more Sandman this year, but we are getting our first spinoff series. Based on characters introduced in the Sandman comics, Dead Boy Detectives is a supernatural drama. The series follows deceased duo Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), who decide against going to the afterlife, and instead remain on Earth to solve mysteries as ghosts. It’s a wild, larger-than-life story. Check out the trailer:
Since Dead Boy Detectives exists in the Sandman continuity, fans can expect potential crossovers. In fact, Neil Gaiman has already teased that one of the Endless will make an appearance. “In Dead Boy Detectives, they will encounter a member of the Endless. But which one? Ah… you’ll need to watch it to find out,” he wrote, per Netflix. Given that the plot of the show involves the two protagonists trying to escape death… it seems probable that it’ll be Death of the Endless who shows up.
Netflix hasn’t set a release date for Dead Boy Detectives, but they’ve confirmed it will premiere later this year. It was initially expected in late April 2024 but Netflix’s 2024 slate reveal now just puts it as TBD. Watch this space.
In case you’re also interested – we also looked at what you can expect from The Witcher in 2024 too.
