With all of the troubles at HBO Max, it can be easy to forget that it was only a few months ago that Netflix was going through a lean period of its own, which has led to the streaming service cutting back on pricy, riskier endeavors in favor of lowest-common-denominator genre fare that everyone will probably stream at least once (if only out of obligation). This new, more cautious attitude might end up scaring the service off of what could be another smash-hit TV series, though, with Neil Gaiman noting on Twitter that the streamer’s new The Sandman adaptation is going to have to “perform incredibly well” if it’s going to convince Netflix to sign off on another season—and even after two weeks of being the biggest show in the world, “that still may not be enough.”
Gaiman, the writer of the comics that Sandman is based on, explained on Twitter that it’s “a really expensive show” in response to a fan asking why a second season hasn’t been announced, and he also reminded his followers to “encourage all your friends to watch Sandman” and to “encourage all your friends who have begun to watch Sandman but got distracted by life to finish watching Sandman.”
The series is an extremely faithful version of Gaiman’s comics, which is both a good thing (the comics are good!) and a bad thing (the comics are so good already!), and it’s probably the best anyone could’ve hoped for with Netflix and its budgets being what they are. So it makes sense that fans are ready for more, especially with quite a few additional Sandman volumes that have yet to be adapted. That bonus episode released last week was nice, and it covered some fan-favorite stories, but a full second season would sure be nice.