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

The Sandman Showrunner's Original 2022 Plans for Neil Gaiman Adapt

In 2022, The Sandman Showrunner Allan Heinberg, EP David S. Goyer, and Netflix shared how they had big plans for their Neil Gaiman adaptation.

On Friday, Netflix announced that Allan Heinberg and David S. Goyer's Tom Sturridge (Dream) and Kirby (Death)-starring live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman would be coming to an end with the upcoming second season – on track to hit screens later this year. "'The Sandman' series has always been focused exclusively on Dream's story, and back in 2022, when we looked at the remaining Dream material from the comics, we knew we only had enough story for one more season," Heinberg shared in a statement when the news was first released. "We are extremely grateful to Netflix for bringing the team all back together and giving us the time and resources to make a faithful adaptation in a way that we hope will surprise and delight the comics' loyal readers as well as fans of our show." That's a different perspective than the one Heinberg, Goyer, and the streaming service offered nearly three years ago.

While speaking with NME in August 2022 during the streaming series' London premiere, Heinberg appeared to have a much bigger picture in mind for what they were looking to adapt and the number of seasons it would require. "We've got as many as they'll let us have. If enough viewers show up, we can go for quite a long while. We want to do all of it, we want a spin-off miniseries. We'd love to make it for as long as they'll have us," Heinberg responded when asked how far they were looking to take the adaptation. "We only started with the first 400 [pages] this season, so we cut it down quite a bit. But we hope to get to all of them," he added.

Goyer made clear Netflix's commitment to the adaptation during an interview with Variety that same month, sharing that the streaming service locked in the series adaptation by being the only one who agreed to that "secret" Episode 11, a very much standalone chapter that adapted "Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Calliope." Goyer explained, "The 'secret' 11th episode was conceived by Neil and Allan and myself even before we pitched the show to buyers. Anyone familiar with 'Sandman' knows that there are all these incredible stand-alone issues interspersed throughout the original run and we were determined to adapt those. We pitched everyone the notion of doing an 11th episode that would drop off-cycle, and we would use these episodes to adapt those issues — but also as a love letter to the fans,"

The executive producer continued, "It was unconventional and it felt very much in-spirit with Neil's unconventional run. We had many offers to make 'Sandman' amongst the buyers — but Netflix was the only one that agreed to make the 'secret' episode. And truthfully, that was one of the major reasons we went with Netflix. We felt they got it in a way the others didn't. We told them we wanted to tackle 'Dream of a Thousand Cats' first and that we wanted it to be animated. And you could see the fear rising in most of the buyers' eyes. Netflix didn't flinch."

Two months later, Netflix's head of U.S. and Canada scripted series, Peter Friedlander, was asked about the second season of The Sandman not being referred to as "Season 2" during an interview with Variety. At the time, the streamer was reconsidering the "binge dump" approach to the series – possibly looking to either split the season or release episodes in groupings that work best with which story is being adapted. "Everything is on the table when it comes to 'Sandman.' It's an innovative show," Friedlander shared.

Developed and executive produced by Gaiman, Heinberg, and Goyer, the original 11 episodes of The Sandman debuted on Netflix in 2022. In recent months, Tortoise Media, NY Magazine, and Vulture have reported allegations of abuse by a number of women against Gaiman. Gaiman has denied anything non-consensual.

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