'Sandman' showrunner teases 'very ambitious' Season 2 if Netflix renews the series

Season 1 of The Sandman finally arrived last week, bringing with it all the scope and imagination of writer Neil Gaiman's beloved comic book series. In the first 10 episodes alone, viewers went to Hell, met talking ravens, learned what a dream vortex is, and even got a peek at a serial killer (sorry, "collector") convention through the eyes (pun intended) of the people who organized it. 

It's all quite a lot to take in, but as Sandman comic readers know very well, it's only the beginning, and showrunner Allan Heinberg is already planning for what's next.

Though Netflix has not officially renewed the series for a second season as of this writing, Heinberg confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that he and his writers have already started work on the next season of scripts. There are 10 comic book volumes of the Sandman series proper, and Season 1 adapted the first two, leaving eight more potential books of story for the rest of the show to tackle. Volume 3, Dream Country, features a number of short stories that could easily be self-contained episodes or parts of episodes, but the real meat of Morpheus' journey picks up again in Volume 4, Season of Mists. 

One of the biggest stories in the entire run, Season of Mists will make good on those teasers at the end of The Sandman Season 1, which suggest that Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) is very much not over losing a battle of wits with Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), and will go to great lengths to try and get revenge on the Lord of Dreams. How Lucifer chooses to do this, and what it means for Morpheus' story, is better left on the comics page for now, but it has to do with Dream's old lover Nada (Deborah Oyelade), who we met very briefly in Season 1. Oh yeah, and basically every god from every pantheon in history, but that's a story for another time. Here's how Heinberg teased what will come next if we're lucky enough to see The Sandman Season 2, Episode 1.

"The end of Episode 1, if we move forward, is Dream saying to Matthew, 'I'm going to Hell and I may not come back,'" Heinberg explained. "So then Episode 2 begins with the rematch between Dream and Lucifer. It's so juicy! I'm so looking forward to doing something entirely different with Gwendoline's look. I don't want to spoil the surprises for people who haven't read Season of Mists, but that's where Dream's trouble really begins."

He added, "I love having cast a lot of these characters already, but obviously we've got Norse gods to cast and Egyptian gods to cast. We've got new demons and we've got some returning demons, so it's a party. It's a very ambitious season."  

But of course, the ongoing concern of what's happening in Hell is just one part of the broader Sandman tapestry. Season 2 would also deal with Volume 5 of the original comic, A Game of You, which picks back up on one of the supporting characters from The Doll's House (the back half of Season 1) and delves into her own dream world and the threats it faces. Then there's Lyta Hall (Razane Jammal) and her baby, and of course the other three siblings who make up Dream's Endless family who we've yet meet. Destiny, Delirium, and "the prodigal" Destruction all have roles to play too. 

It's not clear if The Sandman would continue this two-volumes-a-season approach until the end of the whole narrative, as some volumes -- like Volume 9, The Kindly Ones -- are longer than others, and some of the more self-contained stories in the anthology volumes have a larger role to play. What is clear, though, is that Heinberg and company are already looking ahead and daring to dream.

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