Recently surfaced photos from the set of The Sandman Season 2 show the protagonist, Dream, confronting a figure theorized to be his son Orpheus.
The images, published by the Daily Mail, show The Sandman's lead actor Tom Sturridge in costume for the second season of the Netflix series. Sturridge, who has been playing the title role since 2022, is wearing a black robe and standing on the shore by the Durdle Door landmark near Dorset, England. He shares the sand with another actor, who is wearing a white version of the same outfit, with a long, wrap-around mesh cape. The crew surrounds Sturridge and the other actor, filming their interaction. In another photo, the white-clad actor can be seen walking away with a lyre in his hand, leading fans to speculate that he’s portraying the Greek mythological figure Orpheus - Dream's son in The Sandman canon.
The Sandman's Long Road to a Screen Adaptation
The Sandman was adapted from Neil Gaiman’s dark fantasy comic of the same name. There were previous attempts to adapt Gaiman’s comics into film, inluding a 2013 attempt to make a Sandman movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. For a variety of reasons, the project was shelved, and Netflix signed a deal in 2019 to produce the show. Filming on Season 1 wrapped in mid-2021.
The show follows Lord Morpheus, also known as Dream or the Sandman, after he is captured in an occult ritual in 1916 and imprisoned for 106 years until his eventual escape. Dream quickly realizes that he must journey to restore his realm, the Dreaming, and neutralize rogue nightmares that have been set loose on the mortal realm in his absence. The first season is based on the first two volumes of The Sandman comics: Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll's House.
Following Season 1, Netflix released a bonus episode in which Dream's former lover Calliope is introduced and the appearance of their son Orpheus was teased. Showrunner Allan Heinberg has shared that the second season of The Sandman will largely be centered around the story of Orpheus, a prominent character in the comics whose history echoes his roots in Greek mythology. Heinberg and Gaiman previously stated that they had an actor in mind, though it's not yet known if this is the one pictured in the set photos.
The upcoming second season of The Sandman is expected to release in 2024. The first season is available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Daily Mail