Netflix finally did the right thing and renewed The Sandman! Just when we were all starting to lose hope, too. Now I can finally gush about the characters I can’t wait to see in Season 2 without jinxing anything!
The Sandman is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved graphic novel series. Season 1 took us through Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, with a bonus episode adapting the first two stories in Dream Country. We don’t know exactly which volumes Season 2 will adapt, but so far, all signs point to Season of Mists, with the possible inclusion of the other two stories in Dream Country.
Season of Mists begins with a family dinner, when Morpheus and the other members of the Endless gather in Destiny’s domain. The dinner sets in motion a chain of events in which Morpheus decides to free his ex-lover Nada from Hell, but arrives only to find that Lucifer is closing up shop and giving Morpheus the keys to the realm. Morpheus is then besieged by gods and other spirits hoping to take Hell off his hands.
It’s not clear how things will play out in the Netflix adaptation, although Gaiman said in a Variety interview that the season will feature a rematch between Morpheus and Lucifer, who dueled in Season 1. Even if Netflix does take some liberties with the source material like it did with Season 1, here are some amazing characters we can expect to meet.
William Shakespeare and the Faerie Court
William Shakespeare has a very brief cameo in Season 1, when Morpheus chats with him during one of his meetings with Hob Gadling. What is Morpheus talking to Shakespeare about?
In Dream Country, we find out that Morpheus approached him to commission a series of plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare and his troupe of actors perform the play for the actual royal family of Faerie, with Titania, Auberon, and Puck in attendance. Illustrated by Charles Vess and incorporating actual dialogue from the play (so much that Shakespeare is listed as a coauthor), this issue of Sandman won the 1991 World Fantasy Award for short fiction.
Performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a faerie audience has the potential to be super cringe in a TV adaptation, but Gaiman and showrunner Allan Heinberg have already shown us that the series is in capable hands, so I can’t wait to see Titania, Oberon, and Puck’s Netflix debuts.
Odin, Thor, and Loki
Among the gods who try to take Hell from Morpheus are three members of the Norse pantheon: Odin, Thor, and Loki. Each of them is pretty true to their mythological origins, which means they’re very different than the Marvel counterparts we’ve gotten used to. Odin is obsessed with preventing Ragnarok, Loki is a trickster who’s been temporarily freed from getting snake venom dripped in his eyes, and Thor is a burly, red-haired buffoon who carries a tiny little hammer (although he makes sure to tell everyone that it gets bigger when he rubs it, ha ha).
The casting for Season 1 was so amazing that it’s going to be fascinating to see who they get to play the Norse gods, and how they interpret those characters. The great thing about figures from myth is that you can reimagine them over and over again, whether they’re popping up in Marvel movies, American Gods, the Sandman Audible series (in which David Tennant plays Loki!), or other franchises. You’ll always find something new.
Plus, I’m a fangirl for any and all versions of Loki, so any time any version of him is on the screen, I’m happy.
Delirium
It’ll be interesting to see Morpheus’s older brother Destiny, and eventually his other estranged brother Destruction. But Delirium, the youngest member of the Endless, is the one I’m really excited about.
Delirium, who was once Delight, is based on the singer Tori Amos. In some ways, she’s the most enigmatic of the Endless, since not even she seems to know what’s going on in her head. As a ’90s teenager who read comics and listened to Tori, I fell head over heels for Delirium when I first got into Sandman, and even wrote Neil Gaiman an embarrassing fan letter saying I wanted to play her in a movie. Thankfully, the letter never got delivered and was eventually destroyed.
The point is, I love Delirium, and finally seeing her live-action adaptation might be a spiritual experience for me. Yes, I know she’s kind of a manic pixie, but please just let me have this.
There’s no word on casting yet, but Gaiman did say in that Variety interview that he emails Heinberg every time he sees a good candidate, so there might be a shortlist out there by now. I know they’ll do right by my girl.
(featured image: Netflix)
