It’s been almost three months since Netflix added “The Sandman” to its schedule. And still there is no news about a 2nd season. A fake news report that has gone viral now shows how much fans want one.
“‘The Sandman’ has been renewed for a second season at Netflix” – that’s the complete tweet that an ordinary Twitter user and apparently big fan of the Netflix series sent out – and it went through the roof on the short message service. Within a very short time, the retweets and likes piled up. Many fans did not question the post, took it at face value and cheered. At the time of writing, the tweet already has 20,000 likes. But the problem: It’s fake news, there is still no statement from Netflix on the renewal of the series.
The user clarified directly in another tweet that it is “misinformation” that he is expressing. However, this was overlooked by many who rejoiced too soon. He later called on fans to just play along and act as if the series had long since been renewed, so that maybe at some point everyone – including Netflix – would think a second season had really been ordered and cast and crew could get to work.
The current example illustrates very well the increasing desperation of “The Sandman” fans. For they wonder why the hell Netflix hasn’t renewed the series yet. Launching on August 5, 2022, “The Sandman” on Netflix finally became a hit in the eyes of many, spending several weeks at 1 on Netflix’s internal rankings.
‘THE SANDMAN’ has been renewed for Season 2 at Netflix. pic.twitter.com/qXtRmxILsq
– dean (@corindean) October 27, 2022
Many were already expecting an extension, which Netflix quickly announces after a few days for really successful titles. But fans were still reassuring each other. Netflix was certainly waiting – as it often did with other titles in the past – for four to six weeks to see if the interest was really sustainable. But even this time has long since passed. So what’s going on?
“THE SANDMAN” IS A HIT – BUT IS THE HIT BIG ENOUGH
It could be that “The Sandman” is tripping over the fact that Netflix always has to go bigger, further, higher. The 127.5 million hours of watch time that the first season of “The Sandman” collected in its second week alone, according to Netflix, is a strong figure, but not an outstanding one.
The Sandman” does not appear in the Netflix rankings of the streaming service’s biggest series hits. And actually, Netflix is used to records by now. A new prestige title actually has to outdo the previous prestige titles. “The Sandman” is really a hit this way, but possibly not a big enough hit.
“THE SANDMAN” MAY BE WAY TOO EXPENSIVE
This also has to do with the production budget. In order to outdo the competition like Disney in the fight for the rights to “The Sandman”, Netflix is said to have guaranteed a budget of around 15 million dollars per episode for the first season. That’s a real house number and really, really a lot of money. It is also significantly more expensive than, for example, the fantasy adaptation “The Witcher” was at the beginning (in the meantime, the budget there is also said to have risen to a similar size). Added to that:
With “The Witcher” there were only eight episodes to be financed at first, not eleven directly. And although these eight episodes of “The Witcher” together have a significantly shorter running time than the eleven episodes of “The Sandman”, they totalled significantly more hours of viewing time, so many more people tuned in. The first season of “The Witcher” is thus also represented in the official top 10 ranking of the most watched Netflix content.
THE LOYAL AND LOUD FANS ARE THE GLIMMER OF HOPE
Now, however, Netflix has also not announced that a second season of “The Sandman” will not be coming. Even though the streaming service likes to “forget” such cancellation announcements, this gives fans hope – which is also quite justified. As annoying as fake news is, such creative and loud actions can also help to show those responsible that there is a large, loyal fan base. This has always helped in the past when a project was on the brink.
It could also help here to secure a second season. Netflix might then demand a few cuts in the budget or have a few fewer episodes produced at once. And if the fans are really loyal and tune in again, “The Sandman” could even get many more seasons.
But at the moment, of course, fans still have to worry. It could be that “The Sandman” is actually a hit, with many weeks at number 1 and hundreds of millions of hours of watch time, but that it still won’t be enough for a renewal. Because “normal hits” are no longer enough for Netflix with these super-expensive prestige projects, where ideally it always has to be a new record somehow.
