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The Sandman: How Allan Heinberg Got Superman Into "Death" Bonus Ep

Even though Netflix's The Sandman doesn't take place in the DCU, Showrunner Allan Heinberg found a way to bring Superman into the mix.


The final bonus episode of the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman, which adapts Death: The High Cost of Living, featured a surprise appearance by Superman, or at least references to Superman in the form of his diamond 'S' emblem. The live-action TV series does not take place in the DC Universe but is a place where DC Comics exist, so several references to Superman pop up in depressed journalist Sexton Furnival's (Colin Morgan) day as he contemplated ending his life, and it is Superman who leads to his meeting Death (Kirby Jean-Baptiste). Sexton is distracted from overdosing on pills when he spots a Superman emblem fridge magnet in a junkyard, which leads to Sexton deciding to keep living at the end of the day because of Death and Superman.

Showrunner Allan Heinberg weaved the Superman references into the script without knowing the series would premiere during this summer when James Gunn's new buzzed-about Superman movie would hit theatres, making it feel like it was all planned as a bit of cross-promotion by Warner Bros. Heinberg told Variety he had no idea when he wrote the episode back in 2023 that the episode would premiere right after the theatrical release of Superman.

The Sandman: How Allan Heinberg Put Superman into the Bonus Episode
Image: Netflix; DC Studios

"I didn't! I don't even know if James Gunn watches the show, but I hope so. No, it was that I tried to work in as many DC references as I can," Heinberg said. "I don't know if you remember, but in Season 1, Rose's little brother, Jed, is obsessed with DC Comics, and we had toys everywhere, and it was one of those things where Colin really wanted to show the not-arrested side of Sexton, but the playful side of Sexton. That this is somebody who, actually, prior to this moment, has a lot of joy and a lot of idealism, and he's trying to be out there, and as a climate emergency reporter for The Guardian, he's trying to be a superhero. And he's feeling like he's failing every time he turns around. So, because we meet him at such a low point, we wanted to really show the audience, this is not someone who's usually like this, this is someone with big ideals and big dreams and who wants to be a hero. And Superman is the cleanest. And I've been putting DC Comics stuff into everything I've written for as long as I can remember. So it was a very natural thing to go to Superman."

Heinberg, who has a development deal with Warner Bros., is a lifelong DC Comics fan. His series The OC had a main character who was a comics geek, and there were references to DC Comics in that show, including an instance of Rachel Bilson cosplaying as Wonder Woman. Heinberg and his writers' room on The Sandman talked about the instance where DCU characters appeared in the original comics and wondered if there was a way of weaving them in, including the bit in the comics where Batman and Clark Kent attended Dream's funeral in "The Wake". After all, J'on J'onzz the Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho Woman, the original Jack Kirby version of Sandman, Wesley Dodd, the original 1940s version of Sandman, and the demon Etrigan all appeared in the Sandman comic series.

"We talked about, 'Does Robert Pattinson want to come to the funeral?' Briefly, we did discuss that, but only briefly," Heinberg joked.

But think about it this way: we got an abstract version of Superman stopping someone from ending their own life just by showing up and giving them hope like that moment in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman in the final episode of The Sandman.

The Sandman is streaming on Netflix.


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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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