When “The Sandman” returns for Season 2, Dream’s family will be even bigger.
Netflix on Monday announced the casting of Esme Creed-Miles (“The Doll Factory”) as Delirium, prolific stage and screen sctor Adrian Lester as Destiny, and Barry Sloane (“Revenge,” “Passenger”) as “The Prodigal.”
The trio round out the members of The Endless, joining star Tom Sturridge as Dream, Kirby as Death, Mason Alexander Park as Desire, and Donna Preston as Despair, all returning from Season 1.
Also returning to the show is Patton Oswalt as Matthew, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Ferdinand Kingsley as Hob Gadling, Stephen Fry Fiddler’s Green, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry as Cain and Abel, Vanesu Samunyai as Rose Walker, and Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall.
Mild spoilers from “The Sandman” comic book series below.
As introduced in the acclaimed 1989-1996 comic book series by Neil Gaiman (who also serves as an executive producer for the TV series), in “The Sandman” The Endless are the anthropomorphic embodiments of certain basic aspects of existence who inhabit realms related to those concepts.
For instance, Dream lives in the world living beings collectively create when they sleep, and in addition also oversees creative pursuits like storytelling and music. Death oversees the birth of new beings and guides them to their afterlives when they die. Desire, a hauntingly beautiful being of no fixed gender or sex, embodies the want for romance, sex, material goods, wealth and so on, while their twin sister Despair embodies their absence.
Which brings us to the new members of the family. Destiny, the eldest, is burdened with the knowledge of everything that has ever happened or ever will happen. Delirium, the youngest, defines sanity and reason by embodying the opposite.
As for “The Prodigal” he was first mentioned during the “Season of Mists” storyline in 1990 as The Endless’ missing brother who long ago abandoned his realm and hasn’t been seen since. His absence deeply affected his siblings, with Dream in particular still angry. Clues to who he was, what he embodied and why he left (we won’t spoil it for you here) were occasionally hinted at in subsequent storylines until finally being answered in the 1992-93 “Brief Lives” arc — which also set in motion the final storylines of “The Sandman,” something to bear in mind if the Netflix series get to that point.
Back in November, Gaiman shared a photo from the Season 2 set for the 35th anniversary of the DC Comics series. Gaiman also teased “good things are coming” with Season 2.
35 years ago today, the first issue of The Sandman comic was released. This week, The Sandman officially restarts production.
— The Sandman (@Netflix_Sandman) November 29, 2023
In the words of @neilhimself, "Good things are coming." pic.twitter.com/oLCU7UpFuL
The first season of “The Sandman” premiered back in August 2022. TheWrap reviewer Karama Horne called the season a “gorgeous yet flawed adaptation.”
“Due to the anthology style of storytelling, the series sometimes feels like a tasting menu of a larger story, never really settling in with any character, even Dream. This is felt the most towards the season’s end when the plot suffers from pacing issues, speeding into the resolution so quickly it pulls the punch of its impact.”
The second season of “The Sandman” currently doesn’t have a release date.
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