The Sandman drops surprise bonus episode with Sandra Oh, Derek Jacobi and Joe Lycett
Derek Jacobi, Sandra Oh and Joe Lycett all star in the new Sandman episode. (Getty/Netflix)
The Sandman fans have been treated to two surprise stories to cap off season one, with a star-studded bonus episode.
The series, adapted from the Neil Gaiman comic books, has completely dominated Netflix’s trending list since dropping at the beginning of August – and the new two-part episode has only renewed the buzz.
The existence of the animated “A Dream of A Thousand Cats” and live-action “Calliope” was accidentally revealed when Drag Race stars Katya and Trixie Mattel reviewed them on Netflix’ Youtube series I Like To Watch.
The video has since been made private but was enough to tip off fans that something exciting was on the horizon.
Now, the two-part Sandman bonus episode is available to steam on Netflix.
The voice cast for “A Dream of A Thousand Casts” is indeed dreamy, with Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh as The Prophet, comedian Joe Lycett as The Black Cat, and James MacAvoy as Golden-Haired Man.
David Tennant and Michael Sheen also make a return to the Gaiman Cinematic Universe, after starring in the hit Amazon adaptation of Good Omens.
From the mind of Neil Gaiman, a two-part bonus episode of THE SANDMAN, featuring the stories "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Calliope," is now streaming only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/0z71QUNStG— The Sandman (@Netflix_Sandman) August 19, 2022
Meanwhile “Calliope” stars Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill as Richard Madoc and Derek Jacobi as Erasmus Fry alongside Amita Suman and Nina Wadia.
The cast had their fun on Twitter teasing the release of the the bonus episode with Gaiman tweeting: “It would be nice if there were more than just ten episodes of Sandman in season one.”
Mason Alexander Park, who plays genderfluid character Desire, replied: “I agree, would be super duper cool.”
Although this excited some viewers into thinking there may be a season two announcement coming, Gaiman confirmed: “No word or decision from Netflix on future seasons. They will want to see how we do for the first month before committing. This is something else.”
The Sandman show runner Allan Heinberg previously teased that extra content could be on the way. At the show’s premiere he told Metro: “‘It would have been too long – we got a little greedy in the shooting of it!”
The Sandman has been praised for its LGBTQ+ inclusivity, most notably starring the beloved Desire, as well as multiple queer storylines.
Although season two has not got the greenlight yet, Gaiman added that if it goes ahead then iconic trans character Wanda will make an appearance.
He added: “‘We made sure that we had, for the season two writers room, that we had trans and we had NB [non-binary] people in the writers room working on it because that seemed to us to be the only way to do it
“So The Sandman, we’ll get Wanda, we’ll get all of that stuff – as long as enough people watch season one and they let us keep going.”
