The success of Netflix's The Sandman led to a second season being greenlit, and now, a new promising update from one of its cast members emerged. 

Although Netflix may have accidentally revealed the early Season 2 renewal of The Sandman, it didn't take long for the streaming service to confirm its status. 

Still, the show's fate isn't surprising, especially after it received positive reviews from fans and critics. 

The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has been at the forefront of providing news about Season 2, with him revealing on Twitter that "the scripts have been written and the VFX department has been working on it" way before the announcement. 

Now, another piece of exciting news has been revealed. 

Netflix's The Sandman Receives Important Season 2 Update 

In an appearance at Fan Expo San Francisco, The Sandman actor Mason Alexander Park, who plays Desire in the series, talked about the show's Season 2 and its expected filming date. 

Park first revealed that Netflix has "not gone on record" about calling The Sandman's next installment Season 2 "on purpose:"

“Netflix has not gone on record as calling it a Season 2, on purpose. And so, I will, from now on and in the future, and possibly until the end of the universe not refer to it as Season 2 until we know what it is."

Park's comment about Netflix not referring to The Sandman's second run as Season 2 is surprising, potentially indicating that another limited series or spin-off is in the works that would still be connected to Neil Gaiman's universe. 

The Witcher already did this with The Witcher: The Blood Origin, with Netflix expanding the show's mythology via a prequel. 

Another possibility is that Park could be teasing that a movie is being developed.

The Netflix actor then teased that "there is more Sandman coming in a really cool way" while also confirming that the cast and crew will start shooting this summer: 

When Will The Sandman Season 2 Premiere on Netflix?

The Sandman Season 1 has ten episodes, with the cast and crew filming from October 15, 2020, to August 2021. 

This 10-month period was during the height of the pandemic when lockdowns and strict COVID restrictions were followed. It took a full year for the show's debut season to release, premiering on Netflix on August 5, 2022. 

In comparison, The Witcher Season 2's cast and crew filmed from August 12, 2020, until April 2, 2021, which was also when strict COVID protocols were in place. The show's sophomore season then premiered on December 17, 2021. 

The small gap between the filming wrap and the season premiere isn't surprising since The Witcher Season 2 only has eight episodes instead of The Sandman's ten. 

Furthermore, The Witcher Season 3 also had five months of filming (April to September 2022) during a time when the COVID restrictions were lifted. This could hint that a shorter timeframe is possible for The Sandman Season 2. 

That said, Mason Alexander Park's confirmation that filming for something The Sandman-related will begin this summer could hint that Season 2 could premiere sometime in 2024. 

By narrowing it down, The Sandman Season 2 could be eyeing a fall or winter release date in 2024 if the cast and crew wrap filming late this year or in early 2024. 

This release date window would be similar to the previous premieres of Squid Game, Stranger Things Season 2, Wednesday, and The Witcher Season 2.

Hopefully, a more concrete update will be released soon.

The Sandman Season 1 is streaming on Netflix.

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Sandman.

Neil Gaiman has always liked to put a little nasty in with the nice. In fact, he has made a career out of character-driven, surrealistic storytelling, and it's one of the most prominent aspects of his writing style. So it comes as no surprise that the Netflix version of his immensely popular comic book series The Sandman has a collection of characters that have distinct flaws to go with their flair. It's his way of humanizing them and making them more relatable. They aren't Marvel superheroes. There's no Captain America or Thor in this bunch. His group of characters has shortcomings just like the rest of us. The British author's penchant for creating characters that reside within this realm of moral ambiguity is a device that he uses with great aplomb. And it is within this space that we most often find our shared traits. His proclivity for musings about our commonalities with an ethereal god-like Morpheus or the tragic, supremely defective mortal John Dee make his tales uniquely engaging.

Tom Sturridge (Irma Vep, Far from the Maddening Crowd) and his portrayal of the titular character, for instance, prove to be a tough nut to crack. There are obvious similarities between him and Mr. Wednesday from one of Gaiman's most popular books, American Gods. While it's clear that they both have overarching intentions that are benevolent and in the interest of protecting their mortal subjects, there are instances in almost every episode when you will find yourself asking, "Wait, this is our good guy? Is he even a good guy?" It's certainly understandable that after being caught by a spell cast by the bumbling, amateurish wizard Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) and imprisoned in a glass case for 105 years, the mercurial dream king might be just a little ticked-off and hell-bent on reclaiming his seat as the King of Dreams. However, his brooding and quiet intensity isn't terribly endearing as a main character.

Demeaning and disrespectful exchanges with his ever-loyal assistant Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) who dutifully held down the dream realm during his stead in captivity make it hard to get your Morpheus pom-poms out and may remind some of us of our own bosses in real life whose unwarranted hubris and ire can make our daily lives hell. And the repeated narcissistic, petulant phraseology of, "Not even I can do that!" doesn't fill you with the warm fuzzies for our anti-hero. So you mean there are things that you can't do? Now you're starting to remind us of that kid in high school that couldn't figure out why nobody wanted to hang with them. Even Morpheus knows that he can rub gods and mortals alike the wrong way when he grants a man the gift of immortality with whom he meets every 1000 years. It later becomes evident that he granted this wish simply to have a companion, someone to talk to. Apparently, even gods get lonely. Nevertheless, Gaiman's gambit with his audience is that his god is far from perfect, and then he dares you to outweigh his shortcomings with the overall goodness of his intentions. Essentially, do the means justify the end?

Like a child in the sandbox who can't find his buried toys, Morpheus goes about searching for his essential tools which consist of a small bag of sand, his elephantine helm, and a powerful ruby stone. Along the way, we're introduced to several more characters that have all too common problems that make them more empathetic. Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman), a necromancer and occultist for hire who, in the process of retrieving Morpheus' bag of sand, must deal with the awkward conclusion of a romantic relationship, and John Dee (David Thewlis), a particularly tragic character that you will find at the center of almost every good Neil Gaiman yarn. His use of meek, misunderstood mortals is a device he's used before and is incredibly relatable. The son of Ethel Cripps (Joely Richardson), the woman who initially stole the ruby, John is the most human of all the characters in The Sandman. Broken, abandoned by a mother who shelved him away in mental institutions for most of his life, he is a lost soul, searching for purpose and change. He's been lied to his entire life and after being gifted the powerful ruby that makes dreams come true, John does what a lot of us would do in the same position. Tired of being surrounded by false pretenses and untruths, he wishes for a world with more honesty. That doesn't sound at all bad, much less malicious, but with his broken mind having changed the true power of the stone, the well-paced diner episode reveals that his wishes end up hurting more than helping. No good deed goes unpunished as Gaiman reminds us that too much honesty is problematic. Maybe all the little "white lies" we tell aren't always such a bad thing, right?

Sure, there are completely lovely and compassionate characters like the young dream vortex Rose Walker (Kyo Ra), who represents the good in man and redemptive core qualities that we seek to embody and find easy to root for, as well as the most horribly flawed of them all, the smooth-talking missing nightmare The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), whose cruelty is only surpassed by his taste for eyeballs. But with these representations being largely sensationalized and offsetting one another, it's the area in between these two poles that Gaiman's The Sandman will challenge the audience to find the things we like about his creations. Ironically, he recently opened up about how it was initially a challenge to develop well-rounded, relatable characters, "I didn't really get characters. I didn't understand what characters were. And it took a while for me to learn really how to write good characters, characters who were three-dimensional, characters who felt real, characters who felt real to me."

Ultimately, in the tenth and penultimate episode, Morpheus lets go of his greatest flaws, his stubbornness, and his arrogance. Heeding the wisdom of his sister and easily the most likable of the Morpheus' three siblings, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Dream realizes that they exist to serve humans and that one cannot exist without the other. "Our purpose is our function." Death says. It's hard to find flaw with that. Now what to do about Desire (Mason Alexander Park)?

The Sandman co-creator Neil Gaiman recently indicated that the chances of Season 2 happening are improving.

Responding to a fan on Twitter, Gaiman said that the odds of the Netflix fantasy drama series being renewed were "getting higher every day." The Sandman is based on the acclaimed DC comic book series of the same name created by Gaiman and artists Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. Its first 10-episode season premiered on Aug. 5, with a surprise bonus episode dropping two weeks later, on Aug. 19.

Getting higher every day... https://t.co/u2IoqnvFGn

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 24, 2022

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has approved a new agreement to change exclusivity terms in contracts signed starting on 2023. As The Hollywood Reporter reveals, the new deal gives actors more flexibility to work in multiple TV productions simultaneously.

The SAG-AFTRA is an American labor union representing more than 160,000 actors, journalists, radio personalities, and even influencers, making it one of the most powerful Hollywood players. That means decisions taken by the SAG-AFTRA have profound consequences on how films and TV shows are produced. The new agreement, for instance, will allow the same actor to star simultaneously in two TV shows as part of the regular cast. In addition, per the new terms, actors can also work in unlimited TV shows as guest stars, as long as they show up in a max of six episodes.

Before this agreement, big studios could sign exclusivity deals with actors that barred them from working in other productions. Per the new SAG-AFTRA terms, that will no longer be possible. The new agreement includes a “conflict-free window” of three months between seasons where actors can look for work elsewhere “without first confirming availability and potential scheduling.” That means even lead stars of big series will be able to use these three months between the production of each season to become part of another project. However, this window won’t be valid if a TV show’s filming schedule has a break that lasts less than four months between seasons. So, starting from 2023, big studios could rush to renewal and produce multiple seasons or risk sharing their big stars with competitors.

The new agreement also raises the “money break,” which is the payment threshold that allows actors to negotiate their contracts independently instead of following the SAG-AFTRA rules. Before the agreement, this threshold was $15,000 per week or per episode for half-hour shows and $20,000 per week or per episode for one-hour or longer series. Now, the money break is $65,000 for half-hour shows and $70,000 for one-hour or longer shows. That means the agreement will cover more actors, forcing big studios to pay more for the stars they want to lock with exclusivity or accept the new terms.

The new agreement comes after a series of talks between SAG-AFTRA and Netflix and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a union representing Hollywood’s most prominent producers. Talking about the new agreement, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said:

The Sandman creator and executive producer Neil Gaiman confirms that the show can be saved on another streaming service if canceled by Netflix.

Despite The Sandman being the biggest streaming show on the planet and Season 1 being out for over two weeks as of writing, Netflix has yet to greenlight the series for a second season. One fan on Twitter asked Neil Gaiman about the potential for cancellation, tweeting at the writer, "In case Netflix doesn't continue you can still bring [The Sandman] to other platform[s] like [Prime Video], [Apple TV+], Disney+ or HBO Max, can't you?" Gaiman simply responded with a "Yes."

Yes

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 21, 2022