[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Sandman series finale, “A Tale of Graceful Ends.”]
The Sandman has come to an end on Netflix, and in lock step with one of the comics on which Season 2 is based, a new but familiar character was revealed as the story of Tom Sturridge‘s Morpheus came to a close. This new character brought with it a surprise appearance from an actor who’s no stranger to the world of fantasy TV. Here, The Sandman showrunner and writer Allan Heinberg explains why they wrote the role with this actor in mind, and why their performance made them crave a Season 3 despite Season 2 being the series’ last.
The five episodes of The Sandman Season 2 Part 2 debuted on Netflix on Thursday, July 24. The second and final season is based on The Sandman: Season of Mists comic storyline, as well as Distant Mirrors, in the first half, but the final episodes pull from The Kindly Ones and The Wake. Like in the comics, the Dream King faces the consequences of spilling Endless family blood in this installment. Morpheus killed his son, Orpheus (Ruairi O’Connor), at the boy’s own request after having spent thousands of years as a severed head unable to be escorted into the afterlife by his aunt, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). After going centuries without seeing each other, Dream reunited with his son and granted him a boon by ending his long, tragic existence.
Spilling Endless family blood is a crime punishable by death by the Fates, called the Kindly Ones so as not to offend them. While those closest to him tried to prevent Morpheus’ fate, the Dream King accepted his destiny and started planning for the end. Morpheus chose the baby Daniel Hall, the first child to ever be conceived in the Dreaming, as heir to his throne. Soon after, the Kindly Ones, with Daniel’s vengeful mother Lyta Hall (Razane Jammal) in tow, set off to kill Morpheus after Loki (Freddie Fox) and Puck (Jack Gleeson) made her wrongly believe that the Dream King killed her son.
Tom Sturridge as Dream in ‘The Sandman’ Season 2 Episode 10 (Ed Miller / Netflix)
While Lyta was wrong about her baby being dead, Dream was still guilty of spilling family blood. As the end of The Kindly Ones comic depicted, Dream died willingly at the end of The Sandman Season 2 Episode 10, with his sister, Death, by his side to pay his penance and save the Dreaming. When she asked why he’d choose death now, Morpheus revealed how much his son’s death weighed on him. “I killed my son twice,” he said. “Once when I would not help him, and once when I did. I knew what I was doing. I knew what the cost would be. The Dreaming is no longer the same. I am no longer the same…There is a price for what I have done, and I must pay it.” And so, he did.
When Morpheus died, baby Daniel was instantly transformed into an adult, played by Interview With the Vampire and Game of Thrones star Jacob Anderson in a surprise appearance. Daniel was now the new Dream of the Endless and had inherited Morpheus’ power. Like in the comics, Anderson’s “adult” Daniel (he still has the mind of a child in a way) is dressed in all white in stark contrast to Sturridge’s Dream’s all-black attire. Anderson has a streak of blonde in his hair as a nod to Daniel’s blonde hair in the comics. He wears Morpheus’ emerald dreamstone on a gold chain.
Sturridge’s Dream was right to choose Daniel as his successor, as his humanity made him a more compassionate ruler of the Dreaming and one more capable of forgiveness — something Morpheus took to long to learn how to do. Daniel forgave his mother for those she killed in the Dreaming in their first meeting in the realm. “Sometimes, life and death affect us in ways that have nothing to do with the choices we make,” Daniel told Lyta. “That is how stories are born.” He promised to see her in her dreams. After Morpheus’ funeral, Daniel met his Endless siblings, bringing The Sandman to a hopeful conclusion.
Here, Heinberg explains why Anderson was the ideal new Dream to TV Insider. As The Sandman was part of DC, Daniel Hall meets heroes from the Justice League and other DCU characters in future comics. There’s also an issue where Death meets Lex Luthor. Heinberg comments on the possibility of the new Dream, or other Sandman characters, appearing in James Gunn‘s DCU below as well. Anderson will next be seen at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, which kicks off today (July 24), to promote Interview With the Vampire Season 3. A bonus episode of The Sandman about Howell-Baptiste’s Death comes out on Thursday, July 31, on Netflix.
In the story of The Sandman, the old Dream dies as a new Dream is reborn. In this case, Tom Sturridge’s Dream dies and is reborn as Jacob Anderson’s Dream. What do you feel Anderson brings to the role of Dream compared to Sturridge?
Allan Heinberg: I think Jacob brings joy wherever he goes.
I think the end of the series is a very hopeful one, and when Daniel meets his family, a very joyful one. Lucien (Vivienne Acheampong) even says, “You know, you do have a choice. This time around, you might actually enjoy them.” And you actually see this as an incredible smile on Jacob’s face. You think he is going to enjoy it this time. He’s not going to do this the way he did it last time. This is a different Dream.
Jacob is so earnest, but not naive, and open. You saw in that scene with Lyta — [he is so] very moral, and he brings such grace to the role, and such humanity to the role, which, as you saw through the series, Morpheus struggled with the entire time. Humanity to Morpheus, especially in the beginning, it’s a bad word to him, humanity. He [just] can’t relate.
And by the end of it, it’s his humanity that ends up being the most important element to him. The new Dream has to be more human than he was, because he feels like he wasn’t the Dream that we needed. He let himself down. He let his family down. He let his son down. I think that’s a lot of the reason why he makes the decision he does in Episode 10, to bring Daniel into this realm.
Souad Faress as Crone, Nina Wadia as The Mother, Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall, Dinita Gohil as The Maiden in ‘The Sandman’ Season 2 Episode 11 (Netflix)
What made you gravitate towards Anderson when casting the new Dream?
Just seeing the variety in his work, seeing the core of his work, how intelligent he is, and how emotionally available he is.
When I met him, the challenge for me was going to be how to even describe what this role is to someone like, “You’re an 8-month-old, but you’re a grown man. You’re not doing a Tom Sturridge imitation, but he’s inside you in a weird way.” Why would anybody want to play this part? It’s very difficult to even wrap your head around.
And to my relief, Jacob said, “I just want you to know, huge fan of the comics, huge fan of Season 1. Tom Sturridge is unbelievable. I would love to play this part.” I didn’t even have to describe what the part was. He was like, “The fact that you would even think that I would, that I could be Daniel is the highest form of flattery.” He was all over it.
I basically wrote the script with Jacob in mind.
We got feedback early on that in the early draft of the outline that Daniel was lacking an arc. We were sort of just seeing him react as he does in the comics. He meets people and he reacts, but he doesn’t have his own arc. And I thought he just wants to understand how he got here and what he’s supposed to do now. He has a lot of questions and the audience is going to have a lot of questions too. So, to be able to allow Jacob to ask all those questions and really feel all of that confusion and trying to fight through it to something was a huge gift. He executed it effortlessly, brilliantly, and emotionally.
But also I saw a little bit of Tom’s reserve sometimes, in a way that was exactly right. You know, like the Tom version, the Morpheus version, would show up with [like with] Lyta Hall in the way that it was absolutely supposed to. And then you see Daniel become his own version of Dream, which I think is miraculous. I could watch it over and over.
Netflix
In the comics, Daniel Hall goes on to have many further adventures, some of which are with some DC characters, like in Scott Snyder’s Dark Knight: Metal, he interacts with Batman. Do you think there might be a place for him in the new DC Universe?
I don’t know. We from the outset, we started Sandman, before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over, and we very clearly said we are separate. We are not part of the DC Universe, which allowed us to do Joanna Constantine [Jenna Coleman], instead of John Constantine. It allowed us to sort of play by our own rules in relationship to the DCU.
I made Jed [Walker, Eddie Karanja] a fan of DC Comics so that, you know, the DC superheroes could show up in in that form, like this is a universe informed by DC Comics. If there was a creator, or if James or Peter wanted there to be crossover of some kind, that would be delightful to me. But it would be a decision of theirs rather than a decision of ours.
I designed the end of this season with a possible Season 3 in mind, because I love Jacob so much that I just wanted to continue watching him play this part forever. So, in Season 3 of my Ds, yeah, there’s all kinds of stuff going on. There are all kinds of crossovers going on.
We’ve gone out of our way to make ourselves a kind of separate entity, unless, on the DC Studio side, if they wanted to have Kirby [Howell-Baptiste] come in and be part of their universe, what a thrill that would be.
The Sandman, Season 2 Volume 2, Available Now, Netflix
— Reporting by Erin Maxwell