THE SANDMAN Showrunner On Whether Series Ending Is Related To Neil Gaiman Accusations; New Stills Released

THE SANDMAN Showrunner On Whether Series Ending Is Related To Neil Gaiman Accusations; New Stills Released

The news that The Sandman will end with season 2 came shortly after another wave of allegations were made against creator Neil Gaiman. Showrunner Allan Heinberg responds to that as new stills are released.

By JoshWilding - May 28, 2025 10:05 AM EST
Filed Under: The Sandman
Source: Entertainment Weekly

The Sandman season 2 will also be the show's last, no great surprise given the three-year gap between seasons and continued controversies surrounding creator Neil Gaiman

In the next batch of episodes, 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.

However, the path to forgiveness is full of unexpected twists and turns, and true absolution may cost Dream everything.

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Allan Heinberg broke his silence about the show's apparent cancellation, which come in the wake of more allegations being made about Gaiman's reported sexual misconduct. 

"It was a decision we made three years ago," he said of season 2 being the end for The Sandman, calling the announcement "unfortunate timing, for sure."

Heinberg added, "I can't say that it affected our [post-production] process, which is scheduled years in advance. These are your delivery dates and you just keep going. So it's been in the periphery of my experience and the background of my experience, but it hasn't been part of the world of the making of the show, if that makes sense."

"Every production is its own little island. Even though we were in London, my experience was very limited to the making of the show, even in my personal life, which I did not have for the last six years."

Dream will reportedly remain the focus in season 2 of The Sandman, no easy feat when, as Heinberg acknowledged, "There are some volumes where he just appears in two scenes." As a result, Season of Mists and Brief Lives will be adapted, but A Game of You will not. 

"We managed to add a great deal of material, as we did in season 1, and a lot of really fun surprises for fans of the comics who know the entire story," he teased. "We pulled from a lot of different sources. We took a lot of the single-issue stories and wove them into the fabric of Dream's narrative."

The Sandman season 2 will be split into a six-episode Volume 1 (premiering July 3) and a five-episode Volume 2 (premiering July 24).

The site has also shared new looks at Mason Alexander Park as Desire, Donna Preston as Despair, Barry Sloane as Destruction, Esmé Creed-Miles as Delirium, and Jack Gleeson as Puck. You can check those out below.

THE SANDMAN Two-Part Final Season Sets Premiere Date With First Trailer & New Stills
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Lisa89
Lisa89 - 5/28/2025, 10:16 AM
“The SANDMAN Showrunner Lies About Whether Series Ending Is Related To Neil Gaiman Accusations“

Fixed it.
Blergh
Blergh - 5/28/2025, 2:53 PM
@Lisa89 - it remains a fair point that it took Netflix a really long time to renew the series before the accusations, it was definitely on the bubble. Then got a pickup that was surprising so long after release. THEN the accusations hit.

I’m sure the accusations were part of the decision to end it but lower budget and cut episode order? That’s probably down to season 1 not being the hit Netflix wanted.

Good Omes certainly was affected. The ending was cut down to a movie instead of final third season
BreakTheCode
BreakTheCode - 5/28/2025, 10:18 AM
Decided three years ago? Does anyone actually believe that?
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 5/28/2025, 10:28 AM
@BreakTheCode -

It makes sense.

It would have looked awful enough to throw in the garbage three years ago.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 5/28/2025, 10:39 AM
@BreakTheCode - User Comment Image
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/28/2025, 12:38 PM
@BreakTheCode - Three years ago he was literally talking about how he planned to go on for many seasons, as long as Netflix would allow because he wanted to adapt absolutely everything right up to Overture. He literally says all that in interviews.

And now it's only two seasons and it's skipping things that aren't Dream-centric like THE WHOLE BOOK, A GAME OF YOU! Unbelievable.
It's such a poor excuse to say they want to stay Dream-centric when you only have to look at Sesaon 1 and the two additional episodes to see that they were already adapting things in which that weren't Dream-centric at all.

That's not what The Sandman is. It's not this protaganist-driven series. It's lots of stories tied together.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/28/2025, 10:23 AM
The images look good!!.

Going by what I know of The Sandman comics as somewhat of an anthology , I can buy that they conceived of this being the last season before the Gaiman allegations came to light given how Dream focused this take is..

If S2 feels rushed or incomplete then perhaps you could say that those allegations played a factor in the show ending but we’ll see.

Anyway , I did like the first season so I’m looking forward to this!!.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 5/28/2025, 10:27 AM
Oh man, this raceswapping and genderswapping and degenerate woke crap was so bad in 2022 that they had to end the show after only two seasons?

Can you imagine if Gaiman had always drawn Death as black in the comics, and for the show they made her White, and said it's okay because she can appear in different ways to different people?
SodaBurps
SodaBurps - 5/28/2025, 10:29 AM
This is my favorite comic series of all time. I own all the books. I hate how Gaiman turned out to be a creep and got the show cancelled.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/28/2025, 6:44 PM
@SodaBurps - season 1 was mid compared to the parts of the comics they adapted though IMO.
SodaBurps
SodaBurps - 5/28/2025, 8:29 PM
@McMurdo - Oh I agree that the comics were superior. I was just happy to get a Sandman adaption after all these years. Even though I didn't like everything about it.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/28/2025, 10:59 PM
@SodaBurps - I hear ya on that. It's a shame how its all shaken out. Sucks for fans of Sandman immensely.
SodaBurps
SodaBurps - 5/28/2025, 11:25 PM
@McMurdo - We'll never see anything adapted from his works again. I was an Amanda Palmer fan as well. The wife was wanting to see The Dresden Dolls in concert at some point. That's a no go now.
tmp3
tmp3 - 5/28/2025, 10:38 AM
Probably my all time favorite comic run ever. Just an immense shame how much of it’s been tainted.

This show never quite captured the highs of the comic at all, I will say
Nonameforme
Nonameforme - 5/28/2025, 11:00 AM
Yes. You're all welcome
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 5/28/2025, 11:36 AM
I dont know I believe it, the show barely made it out of the first season without getting cancelled so it’s not surprising they’d plan for it to end ahead of time. I do think the Neil stuff is a bigger factor than they are talking about but it was probably just and extra nail in the coffin
MisterBones
MisterBones - 5/28/2025, 11:44 AM
Bullshit they decided three years ago
dracula
dracula - 5/28/2025, 12:06 PM
even if it is the reason, they will never confirm it
DocSpock
DocSpock - 5/28/2025, 12:22 PM

They are totally lying. It got dumped because he is a creep.

While there very good parts of the show, it sucked as a whole because they changed so much from the comics by shoving it full of Hollywood agenda crap and major box checking.

1stDalek
1stDalek - 5/28/2025, 12:33 PM
I mean, if the shows goes all the way to The Wake then I can believe it because the allegations are from last year and that's nowhere near enough time for them to pivot into doing 2/3rd's of the story in 11 episodes. If the show ends at Brief Lives then it more than likely got cancelled because of the allegations and the cost.

I think an adult animated series is the best way to do The Sandman, that way you can give it the look and space needed to tell the story. It's mostly an anthology were about half of the stories take place before the start of chapter 1 & Overture, and a bunch of them barely feature Morpheus.
TheIronDuck
TheIronDuck - 5/28/2025, 12:42 PM
Hopefully they don't permanently shelve the two remaining installments of the Audio Drama that were already recorded.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/28/2025, 12:50 PM
I got so excited when I saw Martin Tenbones in Season 1, knowing that they would probably do A Game of You in Season 2 or 3, but no, now they're just skipping it.

Y'know what? I'm glad they're not doing A Game of You.

I always thought that would make a perfect Sandman movie.
One day when all of this Gaiman stuff has blown over, DC Studios could do some movies, The Sandman: A Game of You & The Dream Hunters and Death: The High Cost of Living & The Time of Your Life.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/28/2025, 12:54 PM
I mean think about it really. All that money they spent on Martin Tenbones just for a cameo?

Nah.
They fully intended on doing A Game of You.
TheNewYorker
TheNewYorker - 5/28/2025, 1:17 PM
After all these years, they shouldn’t even had bothered with it a season two.
asherman93
asherman93 - 5/28/2025, 1:19 PM
I don't find it hard to believe that the plan was to at least get two seasons done, given how fickle Netflix can be in general with its shows' renewals suddenly turning into cancellations - Inside Job. That said, I'm certain that the showrunners were going to leverage season 2's potential success to do more... and then the allegations came out

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