The Sandman Season 2 Reportedly Casting Thor, Loki, and More Norse Gods

By Russ Burlingame

Before Chris Hemsworth ever returns to the role of Thor, there may be another actor taking on the gig. Just...not in the MCU. According to a new report, The Sandman is casting a number of Norse gods, including Thor and Loki, to appear in the show's upcoming second season. The characters played a role in the comics, and have appeared in Audible's The Sandman audio drama. In The Sandman: Season of Mists, Thor, Odin, and Loki headed to the Dreaming in order to petition for the Key to Hell. In The Sandman, Thor is a massive, muscled, drunken jerk -- a bit more in keeping with his Norse roots and not unlike how he's sometimes depicted in Erik Larsen's The Savage Dragon.

As for his companions, Odin is depicted in The Sandman as smaller, wiser, and usually bundled up. He is missing an eye, and has two ravens for companions. Loki plays a bigger and more integral role to The Sandman's overall narrative, bringing him into direct conflict with Dream on more than one occasion. In terms of personality, Loki is the most like his MCU counterpart, although he is not as easily outwitted, and ends up doing some real damage before he's finally taken back home by Thor and Odin.

In the Audible version of the story, Bill Nighy plays Odin, while David Tennant is Loki. Ironically, Kat Dennings of Marvel's Thor plays Death in that version.

What's On Netflix has the casting news, indicating that the new episodes of The Sandman will include Thor, Loki, Odin, King Auberon, and Queen Titania.

Here's the official character description for Thor: "The Norse Storm God. His hair and beard are unkempt, his body is a mountain, and his voice is thunder. He carries his hammer, Mjollnir, with which he'll happily threaten anyone in his path. Thor is brusque, rude, quick to anger, and is always game for a fuck or a fight."

Exact episode counts are unknown, and Netflix has steered clear or referring to the new episodes as "season two." Given how long it took to get a renewal, it's entirely possible this means they plan on taking a more holistic approach to future seasons, telling bigger chunks of story and coming to natural closing points. That's mostly just conjecture, though. In any case, everyone involved has simply gone the route of calling it "more episodes" or "more stories."

"Millions upon millions of people have welcomed and watched and loved The Sandman on Netflix, from established Sandman fans to people who were simply curious, and then became obsessed with the Lord of Dreams, his family and their goings-on," creator Neil Gaiman said when the renewal was announced. "It gives me unbelievable pleasure to say that, working with Netflix and Warner Bros., Allan Heinberg, David Goyer and I will be bringing even more of The Sandman stories to life. There are some astonishing stories waiting for Morpheus and the rest of them (not to mention more members of the Endless Family to meet). Nobody is going to be happier about this than the Sandman cast and crew: they are the biggest Sandman fans there are. And now it's time to get back to work. There's a family meal ahead, after all. And Lucifer is waiting for Morpheus to return to Hell…"

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