How Netflix’s Sandman handled the comics’ most controversial characters

The second and final season of Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, which kicked off July 3, is the first project to move forward since the writer was accused of sexual assault, leading to pauses in production on Good Omens season 3, Disney’s adaptation of The Graveyard Book, and many other adaptations of his work. Fans of the series will have to grapple with the classic question of whether they can separate the art from the artist, who has denied the allegations, while Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg has walked the delicate tightrope of staying faithful to the source material without causing any fresh controversies.

That’s a tough process, given that some readers have always had issues with Gaiman’s portrayal of dark subjects, including rape and torture, as well as his treatment of queer characters. Originally published in 1993, The Sandman arc A Game of You was one of the first major comic series to include a trans character: Wanda, the best friend of Barbie, a young woman connected to a vibrant dream realm that starts affecting the waking world. Wanda is tasked with protecting Barbie’s slumbering body while her neighbors, the lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove, enter that dream realm to help save it, with the help of the ancient witch Thessaly.

While some readers found that representation deeply meaningful, others took issue with Wanda’s treatment in the story. She’s plagued by nightmares of being forced to have bottom surgery, and denied the chance to enter Barbie’s dream world because Thessaly and the Moon say Wanda is actually a man. Wanda then dies and is dead-named by her family at her funeral. Afterward, she appears as a woman in a dream Barbie has — which some critics have considered a classic example of a tragic queer character arc, and a toxic message suggesting death is a happy ending for a trans character.

Season 2 of The Sandman keeps the narrative focused on Dream (Tom Sturridge), which meant cutting a planned adaptation of A Game of You. But Heinberg felt he had to keep Wanda in the series, given how recent movies and TV shows have been pulling queer themes and characters.

“You can imagine the headlines: ‘Netflix skips the trans storyline because Netflix has a trans problem’ or ‘the makers of The Sandman are transphobic’ or ‘they’re reacting to the conservative politics in the country,’” Heinberg told Polygon in a Zoom interview. “None of that was true. I said, ‘I’m happy to skip A Game of You as long as Wanda comes with us.”

Heinberg read The Sandman books as they came out, and as a young gay man, he felt the representation in A Game of You “was extraordinary.” So he slid Wanda (Indya Moore) into the Sandman arc Brief Lives, where she replaces the minor character of Ruby, who serves as a chauffeur and bodyguard for Dream and his younger sister Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) while they search for their lost brother Destruction (Barry Sloane).

“She’s certainly much more adept and in some ways wiser than Dream and Delirium,” Heinberg said. “She’s able to navigate the world more ably than they are. She teaches them about themselves and about their relationship with each other. She’s enormously generous to them. And her transness is something that she shares with them because it’s a way to talk about her own family dynamics, because they’re in the midst of their own family conflict. But it’s not her story. It doesn’t define who she is.”

The three characters share a drink while Dream and Delirium debate the wisdom of their quest to reconnect with a brother who doesn’t want to be found. Wanda explains that she became estranged from her conservative family when she started hormone therapy, but would still be happy to hear that they cared about her.

“I love what Indya Moore brought to this role,” Heinberg said. “Indya invested Wanda with a lot of her own biography. I hope [viewers] fall in love with her the way that we did. She was an incredible collaborator.”

Skipping A Game of You gave Heinberg more time to develop another controversial plot in The Sandman: Dream’s relationship with Nada (Deborah Oyelade in her one brief appearance in season 1, Umulisa Gahiga in season 2), the queen of the first human civilization. Nada and Dream fall in love even though romance between humans and the Endless is forbidden, causing Nada’s city to be destroyed. In the comics, Nada responds by killing herself. Dream continues pursuing her even after her death, and when she rejects him, he condemns her to spend 10,000 years in Hell.

“I think the comic book version is absolutely legit,” Heinberg said. “That is a version of Dream, but it’s a version of Dream that is very hard to understand by modern standards, and certainly to continue to root for him and love him. I was determined to write him in a way that I could understand the choices he was making at the time, where his pride was wounded, and [Nada] feels guilt for what she has done to her people by succumbing to her feelings for him. She [feels she] needs to pay the price.”

In The Sandman season 2, Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) explains that Hell is a place for humans to receive the punishment that they feel they deserve. This version of Nada condemns herself to Hell, and Dream sends her there because he’s angry she wouldn’t stay with him. Dream is pushed to make amends by his sister Death (Kirby), who points out he was the one who put Nada in an impossible situation.

“He’s still being a brat and he’s still being terrible, but [Nada is] sort of dictating the punishment,” Heinberg said. “He realizes with 10,000 years experience, and I hope some empathy, that he behaved abominably. I’m not sure that it’s any less terrible in our version. I just wanted the audience to follow why he was doing what he does.”

One of the main consequences of A Game of You in the comics is that Dream falls in love with Thessaly, who breaks up with him after a brief affair. He falls into a deep depression until Delirium comes to him with the quest to find Destruction. With the A Game of You arc cut, Thessaly didn’t have as much place in the story, so Heinberg rewrote the arc so Dream is moping that Nada rejected him again after he saves her from Hell. Dream only goes to the waking world with Delirium because he wants to find Nada there.

Heinberg said he knew he had found his Delirium as soon as he saw Creed-Miles’ audition tape. The youngest member of the Endless is introduced at a family gathering in the first episode of season 2 in her classic outfit from the comics, wearing fishnets and big boots like she’s just come from a club or party. But Creed-Miles worked with costume designer Sarah Arthur to create her own look for the character, centering around a white Victorian coat decorated with flowers.

“Esme is very fashion-conscious, and she’s got amazing taste,” Heinberg said. “Esme studied the comics and she felt like Delirium in that coat. (Director Jamie Childs) and I were not exactly sure about the coat, but the minute you saw Esme as Delirium in the coat [it felt like] that’s who she is.”

Episodes 1-6 of The Sandman season 2 are now streaming on Netflix. The second half of the season will launch on July 24, followed by the bonus episode Death: The High Cost of Living on July 31.