Welcome back to the realm of the Dreaming, where visions and nightmares await.
The second season of The Sandman is coming in 2025 to serve up more stories of Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) and his phantasmagorical journeys to Hell and back again.
In a new behind-the-scenes on-set video dropped at Geeked Week –– Netflix’s annual festival for superfans –– we caught the first visions of showrunner Allan Heinberg’s otherworldly take on the Dreaming. We see the fires of Hell, the goth-tastic fashion, and the expansive realms that fans loved in Season 1. But there’s so much more to come, according to Heinberg.
“Sandman fans can expect everything the show delivered in its first 11 episodes and more,” Heinberg tells Tudum. “The new episodes are somehow even more ambitious in their scale and scope — and even more intimate and emotional and deeply felt.”
In the video dispatch from The Sandman set, which you can watch above, Sturridge offers insight into the new season. “At the start of Season 2, Dream is in a place of rebuilding,” he says in the video, adding that Dream has to reckon with his past decisions, “the consequences of which are enormous.”
Heinberg reveals that Dream has more skeletons in his closet. “Dream, having escaped his captivity in the waking world, has reclaimed his stolen tools and missing dreams, and is now focused on rebuilding his realm and attending to his duties,” he says. “That is, until the sins of his past catch up with him and make that impossible.”
Who will be playing the Endless family?
The Endless family from Season 1 will return, including Kirby as Death, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, and Donna Preston as Despair. Season 2 will introduce Dream’s other mysterious siblings, too. “We’ll meet Dream’s eldest brother, Destiny [Adrian Lester]; his younger sister, Delirium [Esmé Creed-Miles]; and the mysterious The Prodigal [Barry Sloane], who abandoned the family 300 years ago — and whom Dream cannot forgive,” says Heinberg.
Who are the new cast members in The Sandman
Season 2?
“Thanks to our phenomenal casting directors, Lucinda Syson and Natasha Vincent, this season’s cast is every bit as magical as Season 1,” says Heinberg.
Pulled from The Sandman collections Seasons of the Mist and Brief Lives, the new characters bring more magic and nightmares to the Dreaming. “Each of these characters is as powerful as Dream — nearly as clever — and far more ruthless,” says Heinberg. “Together, they will ensnare Dream in a web of palace intrigue, glamour, demon battles, and spider-sex. None of which Dream is prepared for; all of which transform him into a far more dangerous Dream of the Endless.”
- Ruairi O’Connor (The Morning Show, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) is Orpheus, a poet, musician, oracle, and the only child of Dream and the muse Calliope (last seen inThe Sandman, Episode 11). Orpheus is an idealistic, romantic, young man — and very much his father’s son — until tragedy strikes and reveals to him the true nature of love.
- Freddie Fox (The Great, Slow Horses, The Gentlemen) is Loki, the god of chaos. Loki is a charming, seductive shape-shifter. The smartest and most dangerous person in any room, Loki is utterly irresistible and never to be trusted.
- Clive Russell (The Cursed, Sherlock Holmes, Game of Thrones) plays Odin, the father of Thor, and blood brother of Loki. He is a longtime ally of Dream’s, but finds himself driven to desperate extremes in his efforts to stave off Ragnarök.
- Laurence O’Fuarain (The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Gentlemen) is Thor, the storm god. With his hammer Mjollnir, Thor is brusque, rude, and driven entirely by his appetites for food and drink, battle, and sex.
- Ann Skelly (The Nevers, Death and Nightingales, Red Rock) is Nuala, and Douglas Booth (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Dirt) is Cluracan, royal emissaries from the court of Faerie. Nuala and Cluracan are siblings who are opposites in every way. Nuala is responsible, empathetic, and principled. Cluracan is an impulsive rogue who lives for pleasure. They disagree about everything, except their devotion to each other.
- Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones, Sex Education) plays Puck, a malevolent hobgoblin who serves as the royal jester to King Auberon of Faerie. Puck is fascinated by mortals and enjoys nothing more than making sport of them for his own amusement. He’s also the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
- Indya Moore (Queen & Slim, Pose, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) plays Wanda, a professional driver and security agent for an exclusive travel firm. Wanda proves herself to be an indispensable guide on an Endless road trip to the waking world.
- Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge, The Trip) is the voice of Barnabas, the canine companion of the Endless’ Prodigal brother. Barnabas is loyal and loving, but an outspoken cynic. Meaning, he’s both man’s best friend and man’s sharpest critic.
Who’s in The Sandman Season 1 cast?
- Tom Sturridge (Being Julia, Waiting for Forever) as Dream, a member of a larger family known as the Endless, immortal beings who rule their own realms
- Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Star Wars) as Lucifer, the lord of Hell
- Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, In the Shadow of the Moon) as the Corinthian, an escaped nightmare who feasts on unfortunate souls
- Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, BoJack Horseman) as Matthew the Raven, Dream’s wise sidekick
- Vivienne Acheampong (Everything Now, Famalam) as Lucienne, the chief librarian and trusted guardian of Dream’s realm
- Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The Crown) as Roderick Burgess, a charlatan, blackmailer, and magician who tries to entrap Death but accidentally captures Death’s brother Dream instead
- Jenna Coleman (The Serpent, Wilderness) as Johanna Constantine, a tough necromancer and successful occult adventuress for hire
- David Thewlis (Fargo, Big Mouth) as John Dee, a madman on a quest for
truth that may destroy the world - Kirby (The Good Place, Barry) as Death, Dream’s wiser and much more sensible sister in the Endless family. She ushers souls to the afterlife.
- Mason Alexander Park (Quantum Leap, Cowboy Bebop) as Desire, Dream’s
fellow Endless sibling who’s as mischievous as they are sultry - Donna Preston (Good Omens, Hard Cell) as Despair, Desire’s twin, and Dream’s sister. She’s the bleakest of the Endless.
- Vanesu Samunyai (formerly known as Kyo Ra) as Rose Walker, a young
woman on a desperate search for her missing brother. She holds immense power that not even she realizes. - Stephen Fry (Gosford Park, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) as Gilbert, Rose Walker’s classy protector — a dab hand with a sword cane
- John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as Hal, a bighearted bed-and-breakfast owner who’s a veritable den mother for the ragtag residents of his Florida estate. But by night, Hal is a drag superstar — in his small-town dive bar at least.
- Asim Chaudhry (Wonder Woman, High & Dry) as Abel, the world’s first murder victim who lives alongside his twin brother Cain in the Dreaming
- Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at No. 42, The Indian Doctor) as Cain, the first murderer, who still enacts violence on his twin brother, Abel
- Joely Richardson (The Tudors, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as Ethel Cripps, Roderick Burgess’ love in the ’20s and ’30s and John Dee’s mother, who plays a vital role in Dream’s fate
- Niamh Walsh (Holby City, Jamestown) as young Ethel Cripps, in her early days with Burgess
- Sandra James-Young (EastEnders, Coronation Street) as Unity Kincaid, an heiress and Rose’s mysterious benefactor. She’s spent a century asleep, but now she’s awake and has missed out on a lot of her life.
- Razane Jammal (Paranormal, Al Thaman, Kira, Carlos) as Lyta Hall, Rose’s friend, a young widow mourning her husband
Where will Season 2 take place?
Heinberg reveals that audiences will be introduced to new characters from the comics, including Thor, Loki, and Odin in a banquet scene with “divine representatives” from different universes. “It’s a showstopper everywhere you look,” Heinberg says in the video. The new season also ventures further across time and space. “We will visit the underworld of Hades and Persephone, the courtly realm of Faerie, ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, [and] the French Revolution,” says Heinberg. “We will meet demons and fairies and gods and demiurges from across all the realms … and that’s just the first few episodes.”
The Sandman is made by devotees like Heinberg, says Sturridge in the on-set video: “Fans will be desperately excited by this season. It’s a sight to behold.”
When will The Sandman Season 2 premiere?
The Sandman Season 2 will stream in 2025, only on Netflix. Watch Season 1 of The Sandman now.
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