Neil Gaiman Says The Sandman Is "On Track" For Season 2 Renewal

After years of being in the works, a live-action adaptation of The Sandman is finally out into the world, with eleven episodes of the series being available to stream on Netflix. The series, which ambitiously brings to life the iconic DC Comics series from Neil Gaiman and an ensemble of artists, has been praised by many viewers, and has ended up having an impressive performance in Netflix's analytics. Still, the series has yet to be officially renewed for a second season — but according to Gaiman, the streaming numbers for the first season are definitely "looking great."

"Basically, the way that it works is making something like Sandman is incredibly expensive," Gaiman explained in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. "This is not a cheap show. This is the opposite of a cheap show. This is dead expensive. And that means that in order to be renewed, we have to perform as well as everybody could possibly, possibly hope. So everybody is very hopeful. It's all looking great. We're certainly on track for it. But it's all about how we do over the month after release."

"Well, you get breadcrumbs, and much more importantly, most of the breadcrumbs that they give you are things that you can check publicly," Gaiman continued. "I think last week, human beings on the face of this planet spent 127 million hours watching Sandman. That is an awful lot of Sandman. And the next-most-watched thing was watched for 65 million hours or whatever. So we're doing well. We're really doing great."

Gaiman did reassert that, if Netflix did not end up renewing the series for a second season, there would still be other avenues for the show to continue.

"Back when we put the deal together, we made sure that there were ways to continue with Sandman. But we also all hoped that none of them would possibly be necessary, because we love our Netflix people and they love us. And they've been amazing. I mean, they even made a secret 11th episode of Sandman."

The Sandman is based on the iconic comic from Gaiman and artists Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Bryan Talbot, and Michael Zulli. A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic – and human – mistakes he's made during his vast existence.

The series stars Tom Sturridge as Dream, Kirby Howell-Baptise as Death, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, Asim Chaudhry as Abel, Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Joely Richardson as Ethel Cripps, David Thewlis as John Dee, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, Stephen Fry as Gilbert, Patton Oswalt as the voice of Dream's raven Matthew, and Mason Alexander Park as Desire.

Do you hope that The Sandman gets a second season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

The first season of The Sandman is now available to stream exclusively on Netflix.