Was ‘The Sandman’ Season 2 Accidentally Confirmed? Here’s What We Know

We’ve been eagerly awaiting news about a season two renewal of The Sandman, the genre-defying Netflix show based on Neil Gaiman’s comic series. With The Sandman dominating Netflix’s “most popular” list and a fanbase that’s been rapidly (and rabidly) expanding, we felt pretty confident that we’d get to see additional seasons of the show. There’s still a ton of material and storylines from the comics to cover, Gaiman is perennially a fave, and the series has been well-received by audiences and critics alike. But did confirmation for season 2 just leak courtesy of the Writers Guild of America Directory, of all places? Let’s take a look.

According to the WGA’s official directory, the entry for The Sandman now lists two seasons, with the second given a 2022-2023 production.

Of course, we do need to take the information provided with a big grain of, well, sand—as the rather prominent disclaimer reads at the bottom of the page, “The information contained in the ‘Find a Writer’ database is the most current and accurate available to Writers Guild of America West (WGAW). Some of the data is self-reported by writers and not independently verified by WGAW. Users of the database accept the data as is, with no warranty of its accuracy stated or implied.” There’s no way we can declare without a shadow of a doubt that The Sandman has been given the greenlight for a second season. But this does look pretty promising.

There’s even a listing for the season 2 staff, which is all but identical to season 1’s, save that story editor Lauren Bello is missing from the season 2 list. (I hope this in itself is subject to change, since Bello wrote the teleplay for my favorite episode of the season, “The Sound of Her Wings,” which features both Dream’s incredibly badass sister Death and Dream’s meetings throughout history with the immortal Hob Gadling.)

We’re eager to head back into Dream’s realm for more (I mean, we haven’t even met Delirium yet, folks), so fingers are crossed that these entries are accurate. Interestingly, the entry for season 1 also lists that there are 12 episodes in total, when only 11 have been released on Netflix to date. The WGA page shows a twelfth episode with a teleplay by Catherine Smyth-McMullen, the writer behind the excellent episode “Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope” that Netflix dropped as a surprise bonus weeks after the series debuted.

Is it possible that there’s another bonus episode for season 1 that we haven’t seen yet? (Please.) Of course, it may be that since “Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope” was technically two separate stories, Smyth-McMullen received separate credits for each, but a girl can, you know. Dream.

(images: Netflix, WGA Directory)