Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: neil gaiman, The Sandman

The Sandman EP Goyer on Decision to End Series; Neil Gaiman/Season 2

The Sandman EP David S. Goyer on moving ahead with Season 2, and if the allegations against Neil Gaiman impacted when the series ended.

With less than two weeks to go until the first volume of the second and final season of Allan Heinberg and David S. Goyer's Tom Sturridge (Dream) and Kirby (Death)-starring live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman debuts, Goyer followed up on what Heinberg had to share last month regarding the production timeline and when the decision was made to end the adaptation with two seasons (more on that below) while offering additional insights into how the allegations against Gaiman impacted production on the series. Over the course of more than a year, Tortoise Media, NY Magazine, and Vulture have reported allegations of abuse by a number of women against Gaiman. Gaiman has denied anything non-consensual.

"I can say, personally, I had never glimpsed any of this," Goyer shared during an interview with Variety. "And even when the accusations first came out, I think we were three weeks from finishing filming Season 2 — so we were very, very far down the path, and Neil wasn't as involved in Season 2 as he was in Season 1." Goyer also commented on Netflix's mindset regarding the decision to move forward with the second season in light of the allegations at hand. "Obviously, it's complicated. I have tremendous respect for women that come forward in those situations. It's really concerning, but I know that Netflix, at the time, felt, 'God, we spent two years making this thing. There's all these actors and writers and directors involved that, if we didn't air it, wouldn't be fully compensated for it.' And so we just decided, we're going to let this work speak for itself. But I'd be crazy to say it wasn't weird."

"It was a decision we made three years ago," Heinberg shared back in May regarding when the call was made to wrap the series with two seasons. Based on his conversation and reporting from EW, Warner Bros. Television had a writers' room in place to chart out where the adaptation could be heading before the first season premiered. Heinberg shared that "lots of different versions of what season 2 could be," were put into play before the decision was made to focus on Sturridge's Dream. "There are some volumes where he just appears in two scenes," Heiberg explained, noting how focusing on Dream's direct story reduced the amount of source material dramatically. "There's so many protagonists in Sandman, but you think of the whole thing as his story."

"It turned out to be about another season's worth of story, without leaving out anybody's favorite moments or scenes. 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. 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," Heinberg continued.

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