Having spent decades waiting for the project to escape development hell in the first place, fans of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman should find the lengthy wait between seasons of the Netflix series to be a breeze by comparison.
After countless false starts that cycled through countless writers, producers, directors, and potential stars, the ambitious comic book fantasy finally made it to the screen in August 2022 when Tom Sturridge’s Dream debuted on Netflix, with the show quickly becoming one of the streaming service’s most popular original episodic exclusives.
It wasn’t handed a quickfire renewal, though, with subscribers left on tenterhooks for three months before season two was officially announced that November. Since then, production on the sophomore run of episodes has been halted by the writers’ strike, but it’s all systems go, with several new cast members having been added to the ensemble to complement returning stars and fellow newbies alike.
Joining Sturridge’s Dream in returning from the first season are Vivienne Acheampong’s librarian Lucienne, Patton Oswalt as the voice of emissary Matthew the Raven, Jenna Coleman’s occult detective Joanna Constantine, Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer Morningstar, Ferdinand Kingsley’s Hob Gadling, Vanesu Samunyai’s Rose Walker, Razane Jammal’s Lyta Hall, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry as Cain and Abel, and Stephen Frey as Fiddler’s Green.
The new faces in the cast are all playing members of the otherworldly Endless family, which includes Adrian Lester as Destiny, Esmé Creed-Miles as Delirium, and Barry Sloane as The Prodigal, who’ll be sparring with the rest of the cosmic beings back from season one like Kirby’s Death, Mason Alexander Park’s Desire, and Donna Preston’s Despair.
There’s no word on a potential release window for The Sandman‘s return as of yet, but with shooting still ongoing it could be a while. Filming initially began in June 2023 before being halted for five months due to the strike, with cameras rolling again from November onwards.
However, the first season wrapped in August of 2021 and didn’t hit Netflix for another 12 months due to the amount of post-production and effects work required to realise the ambitious story, so it could be a while before viewers get their chance to return to the Dreaming.
Two years is fairly standard for a major Netflix series, in fairness, and considering it took a quarter of a century for The Sandman to make it into live-action, to begin with after so many near-misses, it’s hardly excruciating.
