The Sandman EP Allan Heinberg Details Neil Gaiman’s Involvement in Season 2

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Neil Gaiman had limited involvement in Season 2 of his Netflix drama The Sandman, and allegations of sexual assault against him occurred so late in the production process that they had little bearing on the episodes that start streaming Thursday, showrunner Allan Heinberg says.

If you’re unfamiliar with the controversy at hand, here’s a quick catch-up. Netflix greenlit Sandman‘s sophomore run in November 2022. In July 2024, New Zealand’s Tortoise Media released a podcast in which several women accused the popular fantasy author of sexual assault; Gaiman denied the allegations, saying he was “disturbed” by them. Then, a January New York Magazinestory offered more detail on the accusations made against Gaiman and identified more alleged victims. A throughline in the accusers’ stories was that Gaiman allegedly made them engage in BDSM and rough sex without their consent.

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Gaiman vehemently denied the allegations,writing in a blog postthat “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.” The author added that he recalls the relationships in question as seeming “positive and happy on both sides” and noted that he was “selfish” at the time: “I was caught up in my own story, and I ignored other people’s.”

In January, Netflix announced that The Sandman would end with Season 2, the first half of which begins streaming tomorrow. More episodes will follow on Thursday, July 24, and Thursday, July 31.

When I interviewed Heinberg on Tuesday, our conversation (more of which you’ll see in the near future) eventually turned to the unasked-for notoriety now associated with his show. His answers echoed what fellow Sandman EP David Goyer recently told our sister site Variety: that Gaiman didn’t exert a huge influence on filming of the series’ final episodes. (TVLine has reached out to Gaiman’s representative for comment.) I wondered, though, what that looked like on a day-to-day basis while shooting. Was Gaiman on set? Did he see daily footage? Was he involved in casting?

Read on to see what Heinberg had to say on the matter.

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TVLINE | So, I’m gonna ask you the Neil questions now, OK?ALLAN HEINBERG | OK.

TVLINE | I know that you guys were basically done when the s—t hit the fan. I know he was very involved in Season 1, and what I’ve heard is he was not as involved in Season 2. What can you speak to about that? Was he seeing dailies? Was he sending notes? Was he on set? Any level of detail about that.No. Neil was extremely generous with me, and continues to be an ideal collaborator in that. I think early on — there have been so many failed iterations of a Sandman adaptation that he was, I think, justifiably wary. And we didn’t know each other prior. And I felt, very quickly, I was having to make choices and decisions and additions — right away. Dream’s interior life in the comic is not — I don’t know if you’ve read the comics?

TVLINE | Yeah.It’s not illuminated. Very rarely does he have a voiceover that gives you any insight into his thought process, and we just couldn’t make a TV show about that guy. So I was sort of forced into deciding what Dream is thinking and feeling at every moment in the story and scripting it so that the studio and the network are following what the story is, the director knows. The actor knows. And in some ways I think it was, it was a giant leap for me to know that I was sending this to the creator of the character and saying, “This is my interpretation.” And to my relief and astonishment, he never questioned it. And I don’t think there were any times when he disagreed with my interpretation.

And I think what happened was, because I’ve been a fan for as long as the book has been around, I really internalized him, the book, the voice. Neil was always available if I had a question. Because sometimes, there are ambiguous moments in the comic, and I would be able to call him. We were in England the whole time, and he has a place in upstate New York. He was in New Zealand for a while. He was on the Isle of Skye. We were very rarely ever in the same place at the same time. But in Season 1, if I had a question, I called. And because I wanted the show to be as faithful as possible, every design element, every costume, every set, every prop — he was so trusting, I wouldn’t send him eight things and say, “Which do you like?” I would know exactly what it needed to be and say, “How do you feel about this?” I don’t think we ever disagreed. Because I’m so, the book is, is all over my walls and it’s on my desk, and Neil and I have a trust.

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And so in Season 2, he was super busy. We talked less. But if I had a question, I could definitely call. He was involved in the casting of the Endless; that was very important. But in terms of the other characters, it moved too fast in order for us to involve him in the way that we had with the initial casting, which happened in prep. We were casting as we were shooting. So the whole thing just moved very quickly. And organically, because so much had already been established in Season 1, there was less of a need to run everything by him, because he’d already approved it in Season 1. We’re returning to the same sets, we’re returning to the same characters. So it was a very organic sort of, “You’ve got this,” and very generous —like Neil saying to me, “You’ve got this, call me if you need me,” and that’s how we proceeded with Season 2.

If he did watch cuts, he very seldom called me with notes. I can’t even remember a single note, but I think a lot of that was just him giving us room to make the show and knowing that we would get there in the end and not wanting to impose himself on the process. And also: So many people are making the show, and they’re all moving so quickly, and Neil knows this. So for him to drop a pebble into the pond would have created ripples. He knows what that’s like, and he’s very conscientious about it. Is this answering the question at all?

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TVLINE | It is. I mean, look: It’s a tough situation, right?Yeah. It became a tough situation.

TVLINE | You are very clearly a fan. I don’t want you to think I’m coming at it — like, I am a fan of the work. I was a fan of the man. I’m having a harder time with that, and I’m 3 million degrees separated from it. So I’m wondering, if you’re willing to engage at all, what that was like for you, when that news hit?This is maybe going to sound a little callous— and maybe it is— but when you’re making a show, that’s your whole world. The amount of time that you have for anything that doesn’t help the making of the show, doesn’t get in. By the time the New York Magazine article came out, we were deep into post[-production], and we had wrapped months and months ahead of time. So that’s when it became a factor for me. Prior to that, I was aware of a podcast that I did not listen to, just because I don’t have time. Do you know what I mean? It was like, “Whatever’s going on, it has nothing to do with the making of the show, and I have to make the show,” which sounds callous. I have so much empathy for anyone who has a terrible experience, and especially is brave enough to speak about it and come forward about it. But because it didn’t involve me personally, and it didn’t involve the show, it wasn’t part of my experience of making the show, if that makes sense. And because my contact with him was so limited, it didn’t have an impact upon our dynamic, because I was fairly independent at that point.

TVLINE | That was going to be my next question: Have you been in contact with him recently?He is an executive producer on the show, and he’s been a brilliant and — I will just tell you, in my experience— he’s been nothing but loving and generous. And I don’t know that if I had created a comic and some guy came in and made it into a TV show, I don’t know that I would have been as loving and trusting and generous. And that’s my Neil Gaiman experience. I can’t speak about any of the allegations, because I don’t know anything. So I feel for everyone involved, and I wish we lived in a world where there was room for nuance, and everybody’s point of view is valid, including Neil’s. And that’s where I am: Everybody has a truth, everybody has an experience as it happened to them. And if there is — this is going way too far — but I’m not involved in it, in any of it. I respect everybody involved, and the worst thing I could do is make it about me in any way, if that makes sense.

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