In the current era of comic book adaptations, even if movies or TV series are released every second day, there is still so much great material waiting for its turn. When something has been trying to make a leap for decades, seeing it in all its glory is a real event.
The Sandman is here, and that’s all the fans have been hoping for for the last thirty years. Despite the fact that for many years screenwriter Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer and a team of professionals believed that they were not being filmed, screenwriter Neil Gaiman and a team of professionals gave fans and newcomers the perfect “Sandman” experience. But with the first season comes endless screams about the second, so what might the next series look like?
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For those who knew comics like the back of their hand, the Netflix series chose the most direct path when it came to adapting its story. This is a fairly direct adaptation of the first two collections of the original 1988 comic book. “Preludes and Nocturnes” includes the first eight issues of the series, telling about Dream’s years in captivity and his desire to get his things back. “Dollhouse” includes the next eight, exploring Rose Walker’s place in dreams and the hunt for the Corinthian. Changes have been made to the narrative to better link these often anthological stories into a more serialized narrative. Given the clean and direct way of interpreting the source material chosen by the series, it’s pretty easy to guess where the theoretical second season might go.
After the first two collections are removed, the second season will be free to move on to the third and fourth collections. The third collection, Dream Country, is completely unrelated. It depicts four independent stories, two of which almost do not include “Dream” or “Infinite” until their completion. This is a strange study of the interaction of mortals with immortals beyond their understanding, for good and for evil. Comic book fans watching the first season may have been on edge watching Dream chat with William Shakespeare, but that reward will probably be in the second season. The fourth collection will be the best basis for a season on television, and the first season also largely anticipated it. “Season of Mists” is the fourth collection, and it contains most of the winnings that fans will expect after enjoying the cliffhangers of the first season.
Although the third and fourth collections contain many episodic adventures, most of them probably cannot be stretched to a full TV series. While the first season almost evenly split the time between the first two volumes, the second season will probably rely more on the “Season of Mists”. This compilation shows the completion of Desire’s dark plans against their brother Dream, as well as the payback for Lucifer Morningstar’s apparent revenge plans. The series ended with the negotiations of the Light Bearer with one of the generals of Hell Azazel, as well as a plan for revenge in the future. The biggest change made to Lucifer in the series is due to the re-creation of the “Oldest Game”. In the comics, Morpheus confronts Horonzon directly, but in the series, the lesser demon appoints the Light Bearer as his protector. This creates a more direct hostile relationship between Dream and Lucifer, but this interesting change may be part of the bait and switch.
In the comics and probably in the TV series, Lucifer’s plan is not to lead the siege of the Dream, but to renounce control of Hell. The fallen angel banishes all demons and tormented souls from the gloomy domain and passes the key to another monarch, Dream. This leaves Morpheus in charge of the fate of hell and creates an additional Lucifer series, which partially inspired the Netflix series of the same name. Dream finds himself in the center of a multitude of powerful personalities seeking to control hell, which leads to one of the most exciting scenes of the series — the divine dinner. If the Netflix series continues to accurately adapt the comics, fans will see a Gaiman version of Scandinavian, Japanese and Egyptian deities, as well as living embodiments of Order and Chaos. It will be a breathtaking spectacle, and it will be the focus of the second season if the series continues its current trajectory. This is also due to one of the biggest teasers of the first season, the brief disclosure of Dream’s relationship with the African queen Nada.
There are a lot of interesting things in the second season of “Sandman”. The first season did an excellent job of adapting the source material, moving it to the proper environment and updating it for the modern era. There’s still a lot of fascinating material in the second season, but fans will have to wait and see how the series handles it. The dream of the Sandman has come true, but there are still so many stories left to tell.
