In the current age of comic book adaptation, even with a movie or series coming out every alternate day, there's still so much great material waiting for its turn. When something has been trying to make the leap for decades, it's a true event to see it in all its glory.
The Sandman is here, and it's everything fans were hoping for over the last thirty years. Despite being labeled unfilmable for years, writer Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and a team of pros gave hardcore fans and newcomers the perfect Sandman experience. But, with a first season, comes the endless cries for a second, so what could the next series look like?
For those who knew the comics like the back of their hand, the Netflix series took the straightest possible path when it comes to adapting its story. It's a fairly straight adaptation of the first two collections of the original 1988 comic book run. Preludes and Nocturnes includes the first eight issues of the series, covering Dream's years in captivity and his quest to reclaim his things. The Doll's House includes the next eight, exploring Rose Walker's place in the Dreaming and the hunt for The Corinthian. Changes are made to the narrative to better link these often anthological tales into a more serialized narrative. Given the clean and direct way that the series chose to interpret the source material, it's fairly easy to guess where a theoretical second season might go.
With the first two collections out of the way, season two would be free to move on to the third and fourth collections. The third collection, Dream Country, is a very unconnected affair. It depicts four independent stories, two of which barely include Dream or the Endless until their conclusion. It's a strange exploration of mortalkind's interaction with the immortals beyond their understanding, for good and for ill. Comic book fans watching season one might have been on the edge of their seat watching Dream chat with William Shakespeare, but that payoff likely lies in season two. The fourth collection would make a better backbone for a season of television, and it's also been heavily foreshadowed by season one. Season of Mists is the fourth collection, and it contains most of the payoff that fans will be expecting after enjoying the first season's cliffhangers.
While there are plenty of episodic adventures contained in the third and fourth collections, most of them probably can't be stretched to a full episode of TV. While season one split its time almost evenly between the first two volumes, the second season is likely to lean more heavily on Season of Mists. That collection sees the conclusion of Desire's grim schemes against their brother Dream, as well as the payoff of Lucifer Morningstar's apparent plans for revenge. The series ended with The Light Bringer's negotiation with one of Hell's generals Azazel, as well as a sworn plan for vengeance sometime in the future. The biggest change made to Lucifer in the series comes in its recreation of The Oldest Game. In the comics, Morpheus faces Choronzon directly, but in the series, the lesser demon nominates The Light Bringer as his champion. This creates a more direct adversarial relationship between Dream and Lucifer, but this interesting change might be part of a bait and switch.
In the comics and likely in the series, Lucifer's plan isn't to lead a siege on the Dreaming, it's to abdicate control of Hell. The fallen angel banishes every demon and tortured soul from the grim domain and hands over the key to another monarch, Dream. This leaves Morpheus in charge of the fate of Hell and sets up the Lucifer spin-off series that loosely inspired the Netflix series of the same name. Dream finds himself at the center of a ton of powerful figures who seek control over Hell, leading to one of the most engaging scenes of the series, a dinner party of the divine. If the Netflix series continues to adapt the comics with accuracy, fans will get to see Gaiman's version of Norse, Japanese, and Egyptian deities, as well as living embodiments of Order and Chaos. It'll be a sight to behold and the central focus of season two if the series continues its current trajectory. It also ties in with one of season one's biggest teases, the brief reveal of Dream's relationship with the African queen Nada.
Season two of The Sandman has a ton of interesting things in store. The first season did a note-perfect job of adapting the source material, moving it into the proper medium, and updating it for the modern age. The second season still has a ton of fascinating material to pull from, but fans will have to wait and see how the series handles it. The Sandman was a dream come true, but there are still so many stories left to tell.