Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for The Sandman Season 2, Volume 2 are ahead!
Although The Sandman doesn’t technically end until the bonus episode “Death: The High Cost of Living” is released to fans who have a Netflix subscription, the series’ main storyline has now concluded. For the most part, these final episodes of The Sandman Season 2 faithfully adapted the way Neil Gaiman’s original comic book series ended after a three-year absence. Tom Sturridge’s Morpheus willingly gave up his life to the Kindly Ones, and Lyta Hall’s son Daniel, played here by Interview with the Vampire’s Jacob Anderson, becoming the new Dream of the Endless. The show even included elements from the prequel miniseries The Sandman: Overture by having Morpheus speak with his parents, Time and Night.
However, as someone who’s read the original Sandman series, what stuck out to me was how the TV version deviated from its source material. Fortunately, I was able to talk with series co-creator David S. Goyer about the big twists thrown in for some surprise characters. While our conversation later turned to topics like what he thought of James Gunn’s Superman, the majority of the interview revolved around The Sandman, so let’s go over what he had to say about these major moments from the finale, titled “A Tale of Graceful Ends.”
Joanna Constantine And The Corinthian Are Romantically Involved
Just like in the comics, The Corinthian returned for the final episodes of The Sandman, with Boyd Holbrook now playing a version of this living nightmare who has the memories of his predecessor, but won’t be overtaken by his violent tendencies. David S. Goyer first told me the following about why he liked The Corinthian becoming a more sympathetic character so much:
Well, first of all, I love the, I'm gonna call it an anti-heel turn, that Corinthian takes in the comic book. He’s just this epic, horrific nightmare villain, and I love that he's reborn and then becomes a defender in a way and an agent for good. I suppose to a certain extent, that was a little bit of my influence as well, and people like Boyd. I thought it was fun.
Then we have Jenna Coleman’s Joanna Constantine, specifically the present day version, who substituted for John Constantine on the Netflix show. While John wasn’t involved in The Sandman’s closing comic book arc, Joanna was very much an important player, as she was paired with The Corinthian to track down the infant Daniel, who’d been kidnapped by Loki. Initially Joanna was leery towards this new Corinthian since she remembered the original’s killing spree across the decades, while Corinthian 2.0 was clearly taken with the occult detective and wanted to pursue a deeper relationship with her.
Joanna was very much not on board with this during their search for Daniel and Loki, but after Morpheus’ funeral, she realized that the second Corinthian was indeed nothing like the original. So they kissed and ignited an unorthodox romantic connection. Goyer this to say about why he like pairing these two together:
We knew we were going have Joanna in Season 2, so I think one of the things that you think about when you're doing subsequent seasons of TV shows, and this is something that a lot of showrunners do, is they will think about, ‘Well, who are characters that haven't had scenes together before?’ in terms of creating story engines. And in the comic books, they didn't really interact. And once you start thinking about it and then the writer's room and your director, they find that appealing, then it just opens up pathways that didn't previously exist. Just by doing the exercise of thinking, ‘Well, what are some characters that haven't had scenes together or haven't interacted?’
Joanna Constantine acknowledged that her and The Corinthian’s relationship would be unusual since it would only happen in her dreams, but given how her past relationships turned out, she was willing to give this a shot. Alas, with The Sandman ending, we’ll never learn whether these two crazy kids make it together or not. I’m leaning towards them having a bright future yes since Joanna’s not turned off by Corinthian’s eye mouths.
Destruction Met The New Dream
When Destruction bid farewell to Dream and Delirium on that island, that was the last time he appeared in the comics (chronologically speaking). In the TV show, however, Barry Sloane’s Destruction returned to meet with Daniel in The Dreaming as Morpheus’ funeral was going on, though he didn’t want any of the other Endless, i.e. his siblings, to know he was around. David S. Goyer praised Sloane’s performance earlier in the interview, then explained why it made sense for Destruction and Daniel to meet:
Well again, we really liked Barry Sloane, but I think that Daniel represents a kinder, gentler Dream. And if you think about near the end of the first half of Season 2, how Destruction is giving Dream advice. It's almost as if Daniel's like a second chance at a more humanistic Dream. So we look at that as like the bookend of that scene where Destruction leaves Dream.
Although Daniel is just as much Dream as Morpheus was and has all his predecessor’s memories, he’s still enough of a new individual that he doesn’t automatically know everything he needs to do or how he needs to act. So that provided an easy in for Destruction to make an unexpected appearance and pass along some advice. Goyer continued:
I also view Destruction and Death as the most human of the Endless, but ultimately probably Destruction is the most human of them and the first of his kind simply because he abdicated his throne. So that just felt like it was a nice bookend to Destruction leaving Morpheus at the end of that first arc.
Ultimately we leave Destruction off basically in the same place where he was left at the end of Volume 1 and in the comics: heading off to destinations unknown in the universe and likely to never interact with the other Endless again. But that was indeed a nice full circle moment added onto The Sandman’s final chapters, and helped it Daniel get ready to meet the rest of his siblings at the end of the last episode.
The Kindly Ones End-Credits Returned In The End-Credits Scene
Like so many comic book movies and TV shows do nowadays, The Sandman Season 2 finale thew in its own end-credits scene. Before “A Tale of Graceful Ends” came to a close, we checked in one last time with The Kindly Ones, as they were seen opening yet another fortune cookie, this one about stories ending. It was a very meta cap on The Sandman (again, excluding the bonus episode), but it wasn’t David S. Goyer who came up with this, but rather co-creator Allan Heinberg. Goyer told me:
That was Allan's decision. I think it was a really good decision. The Kindly Ones, if you really step back and you look at the 23 episodes combined or something like that, there are times that in the first season and the second season, there were stories in the comic books that were very standalone, obviously, and we've adapted some of those single issue stories, but we were attempting to weave it together as a more unified narrative. It just felt a way of encapsulating and unifying everything and saying, ‘Ok, this is of a piece.’ Even though we've gone in these little sort of tributary journeys, we're giving text.
While it’s unfortunate that Netflix’s The Sandman (one of the best shows to binge watch on Netflix) had to trim quite a bit from the comics in order to focus on Morpheus’ story, it makes sense once it became clear this series wasn’t going to last four+ seasons. I think the goal of unifying those narratives that Goyer mentioned was effectively accomplished, and checking in one last time on The Kindly Ones was an interesting way to put a bow on the main storyline. Nina Wadia, Dinita Gohil, and Souad Faress’ characters represent the past, present and future, and though Morpheus’ story has ended, there are countless more where that came from.
There’s just one more installment left to go with The Sandman, as “Death: The High Cost of Living,” focusing on Kirby’s Death, drops on July 31. After that, you’ll ant to look over the rest of the 2025 Netflix release dates to figure out what other movies and TV shows you’ll be watching on the platform in the latter half of the year.
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