Why The Sandman Season 2 Still Hasn’t Been Confirmed
The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman revealed part of the Netflix process keeping the series from getting a season two renewal.
This post contains light spoilers for The Sandman
It sure seems that people like a surprise bonus episode, which adapted fan-favorite stories “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope.”
So why hasn’t The Sandman been renewed for a second season? Writer and creator of The Sandman comics some potential reasons, pointing to the tremendous financial costs involved with a live-action fantasy show. But more recently, Gaiman took to Twitter again to reveal some of the mechanics inside of Netflix.
In response to a (now deleted) tweet from a fan demanding a quicker response from the streaming service, Gaiman reminded readers that the show has only been out for a month and a half, which means “data harvesting has only just finished.” In other words, Netflix is just now getting hard data on the audience for The Sandman, which allows them to measure the risk involved in continuing such an expensive show.
Furthermore, Gaiman indicated that people approach The Sandman differently than they do other Netflix shows. The data-mining process “is complicated by a lot of people not binge-watching it,” wrote Gaiman, “but spreading it out, letting episodes sink in before watching the next.”
At first glance, this slow reception of The Sandman would seem to work in the show’s favor. After all, it shows that people take their time and think about The Sandman instead of blowing through it and then promptly forgetting about it. The show has the staying power that many other series lack. But it also means that it may not be a good fit for Netflix which prioritizes binge-watching.
Also working in the show’s favor are Desire, who has been orchestrating events to overthrow him.
Although he knows how badly people want to see more Sandman stories on screen, Gaiman ultimately urges patience. Perhaps in hopes of avoiding a #releasethesnydercut scenario, the writer reminded his followers that “Telling @netflix to hurry up won’t make decisions s happen faster.” In the meantime, we’ll just have to dream about season two.
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!