Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman to End With Season 2 on Netflix

Kimberly Roots
·3-min read

Netflix is putting The Sandman to sleep.

The fantasy drama based on Neil Gaiman’s comic series has been cancelled at the streamer, TVLine has confirmed. The series will end with the forthcoming Season 2; there’ll be no Season 3. Our sister site, Variety, first reported the cancellation.

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Gaiman, who is an executive producer on the show, was the subject of a recent magazine story and podcast that alleged he sexually assaulted multiple women.

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In Tortoise Media’s Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman podcast, released in early July, Gaiman was accused by a 23-year-old woman of sexually assaulting her within hours of their first meeting at his New Zealand residence, where she worked as nanny to his child. (Gaiman has said that only consensual digital penetration occurred during their three-week relationship.) A second accuser says she was 18 when she met Gaiman at a book signing, then began a relationship with him at age 20, during which she submitted to “rough and painful” sex that “she neither wanted nor enjoyed.” (Gaiman denied any unlawful behavior.)

A story New York Magazine published in January offered more detail on the accusations made against Gaiman; of the eight women New York spoke with, four had taken part in the Tortoise podcast. A throughline in the accusers’ stories was that Gaiman allegedly made them engage in BDSM and rough sex without their consent.

Gaiman vehemently denied the allegations, writing in a blog post that “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.” The author added that he recalls the relationships in question as seeming “positive and happy on both sides” and noted “that I could have and should have done so much better. I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people’s.”

Gaiman was conspicuously absent from a preview video for The Sandman‘s upcoming season. The third and final season of his Prime Video series Good Omens will consist of just one, 90-minute episode; though Gaiman contributed to the episode’s writing, he will not work on the production. Prime Video’s adaptation of his Anansi Boys also remains in the works.

Discussion about ending the series after Season 2 reportedly has been going on for some time, and the new episode are on track for a 2025 release.

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“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,” showrunner Allan Heinberg said in a statement to TVLine Friday. “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.”

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