While the names of the three actors joining The Sandman’s second season may not be immediately recognizable, the characters they’ll be bringing to the Netflix show will definitely intrigue fans: the final three members of the Endless, the cosmic family that also includes Tom Sturridge’s Dream.
As Variety reports, the new faces will be Esmé Creed-Miles as Delirium, Adrian Lester as Destiny, and Barry Sloane as a character Netflix is specifically referring to as “the Prodigal,” who comic fans will know is also called Destruction. (The rest of this dysfunctional crew appeared in season one, and also includes Death, played by Kirby; Desire, played by Mason Alexander Park; and Despair, played by Donna Preston.)
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The streamer’s designation of Sloane’s role as “the Prodigal,” the trade points out, is significant because it’s how the character “is referred to throughout the first volumes of the story. The three new castings point to The Sandman season two covering the graphic novel’s iconic installment, Season of Mists.”
This isn’t a surprise: soon after season one’s arrival in August 2022, Neil Gaiman—who developed the series based on the DC Comics he created with Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg—was already looking ahead to a second season, which had yet to be confirmed at the time. In an interview with Variety, he admitted “I take too much fucking pleasure in saying to people who do not know anything about what’s coming up in Sandman … everybody who’s ever read Season of Mists knows how that’s going to work, [but] that’s good because not everybody will have read Season of Mists and this is going to be so much fun.” He also told the trade the casting of Destiny, Delirium, and Destruction was very much on his mind: “Every time I think of or run into or pass or notice an actor who could be either a Destruction or a Delirium, [Sandman showrunner] Allan [Heinberg] gets an email.”
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The Sandman’s sophomore season was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes, and there’s no premiere date yet for the new episodes. Are you excited for this casting—and for what it seemingly confirms about season two’s plot?
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