The first season of Netflix's long-awaited Neil Gaiman adaptation The Sandman was, aptly, the stuff dreams are made of. Blurring the lines between serialised and episodic storytelling, and operating - aptly - in an almost dreamlike mode throughout its duration, the streamer's take on Gaiman's legendarily lore-filled 75-comic dark fantasy was the perfect introduction to the tale of Tom Sturridge's Lord of Dreams, Morpheus, and his Endless siblings. And with Season 2 already in production, today Netflix have announced a slew of exciting new additions to the cast for the upcoming series.
Playing characters from The Sandman collections Season Of Mists and Brief Lives, the cohort assembled to help usher in our return to the dream world includes *deep breath* Ruairi O'Connor (The Morning Show) as poet Orpheus, Game Of Thrones alumnus Clive Russell and Jack Gleeson as Odin and malevolent hobgoblin Puck respectively, Freddie Fox (Slow Horses) as God of Chaos Loki, Laurence O’Fuarain (The Gentlemen) as stormbringer Thor, and Indya Moore (Queen & Slim) as security agent/professional driver Wanda. They're joined by Douglas Booth (Loving Vincent) and Ann Skelly's Faerie court emissaries Cluracan and Nuala, and Steve Coogan, who is set to voice the opinionated canine companion of The Endless' Prodigal brother (Barry Sloane).
Today's fresh casting announcements follow the recent reveal that Adrian Lester, Esmé Creed-Miles, and the aforementioned Sloane will round out Dream's (Tom Sturbridge) Endless family in Season 2 as Destiny, Delirium, and The Prodigal respectively. And whilst specifics of the second series' plot remain under wraps at present (and we'd probably still be none the wiser even with a synopsis), if the show continues to follow in the comics' footsteps as it has done so far, then our man Morpheus is set for a Hell of a time when The Sandman returns — quite literally. But as the saying goes, one Endless' Hell is another telly addict's Heaven. And for now, with production still underway, we'll just have to wait and see what Gaiman and showrunner Allan Heinberg have in store for us next. (And maybe give Dead Boy Detectives another swizz!)