The Sandman has now come to an end, with the season 2 finale delivering a pretty definitive conclusion to the story. Morpheus may be dead, but Dream of the Endless continues on, and co-creator Allan Heinberg is not completely ruling out the possibility of a third season.
With his realm in danger of being destroyed by the Fates, aka the Furies, aka the Kindly Ones, Morpheus ultimately decides to give his life to save the Dreaming, with Death taking her brother's hand in a flash of light. When Daniel Hall, the first child conceived in The Dreaming, grows to adulthood in order to fulfil his role as the new Dream Lord, we learn that the character is played by Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones, Interview With the Vampire).
“I’m nothing but grateful at this point," Heinberg tells Variety. "If they came back tomorrow and said, ‘Let’s do a Season 3,’ I would do it instantly. I would write this show for as long as they would let me. This show feels like all TV shows — like you can do anything. You can write about anything in the context of “The Sandman” in funny ways and romantic ways and scary ways. It’s this thing that Neil created to tell all manner of stories. So it has been a creative dream for me, and I am very sad to see it go, because I can’t imagine anything else having the range that this show has: imaginary realms and time periods. And this has been an education for me, this show, in every way — as all shows are, but more so this time. And I can’t believe Netflix let us make it.”
The final episode actually does include a post-credits scene, but it's not so much a tease of what's to come as a meditation on Morpheus' arc over the course of the series.
The sequence finds the Kindly Ones back at their realm, reading the following "bad poetry" from a fortune cookie: “Flowers gathered in the morning; Afternoon, they blossom on; Still are withered in the evening; You can be me when I’m gone.”
"In the comics, it takes place at the end of The Kindly Ones [the ninth collection of issues], before the wake and the funeral and all the stories that come after The Kindly Ones," Heinberg tells EW. "I loved it and I decided to move it to the end after the wake. In that last scene where Daniel meets his family for the first time, and Lucien sees that there's a smile on his face and knows it's going to be okay, cutting right to the Fates felt like it undercut that moment a bit.
We debated whether or not to lose it entirely. In the end, I really wanted to save it because I'm a huge fan of it. I don't think I added anything to it. I think it's exactly what was written in the comic. Netflix was very generous and agreed to make it a post-credits scene, even though, as you know, Netflix's relationship with credits and the audience's relationship with credits are fairly complex. So it was no small feat for them, but they did it."
Season 2's synopsis reads: “After a fateful reunion with his family, Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) must face one impossible decision after another as he attempts to save himself, his kingdom, and the waking world from the epic fallout of his past misdeeds. To make amends, Dream must confront longtime friends and foes, gods, monsters, and mortals. But the path to forgiveness is full of unexpected twists and turns, and true absolution may cost Dream everything. Based on the beloved award-winning DC comic series, the second season of ‘The Sandman’ will tell Dream’s story arc in full to its thrilling conclusion.”
Season 2 stars Tom Sturridge, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Esmé Creed-Miles, Adrian Lester, Barry Sloane, Patton Oswalt, Vivienne Acheampong, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Coleman, Ferdinand Kingsley, Stephen Fry, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Razane Jammal, Ruairi O’Connor, Freddie Fox, Clive Russell, Laurence O’Fuarain, Ann Skelly, Douglas Booth, Jack Gleeson, Indya Moore and Steve Coogan.