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The upcoming second (and final) season of Netflix's Sandman is being released amidst a dark cloud that has been hovering over the project since this time last year. That dark cloud is co-creator Neil Gaiman, whose public image took a massive blow following numerous sexual misconduct and sexual assault allegations that came to light in July 2024. This led to one Disney adaptation being canceled and his removal from Amazon Prime Video's Good Omens series (and the truncation of that as well), and open speculation that it could affect the well-received TV series.

When it was announced that the Sandman TV series was ending after its upcoming second season, the common assumption was that it was due to those allegations but now Sandman TV series co-creator David S. Goyer is speaking out saying that wasn't the case - and also downplaying Gaiman's involvement with the show as a whole.

"[The ending] was planned more than two years ago. And we had a lot of discussions, [showrunner] Allan [Heinberg] and I, with Netflix," Goyer tells Jennifer Maas from Variety.

"And even when the accusations first came out, I think we were three weeks from finishing filming Season 2 — so we were very, very far down the path and Neil wasn’t as involved in Season 2 as he was in Season 1," says Goyer. "Obviously, it’s complicated. I have tremendous respect for women that come forward in those situations."

Related: My personal reckoning with Neil Gaiman and his work, and our relationship with celebrities

Goyer also makes it a point that he never saw any sexual misconduct firsthand from Gaiman in his decades of knowing him.

Based on what he's saying elsewhere in the interview, there was some talk between he, Heinberg and Netflix about adjusting the plans for the Sandman season 2 based on the frightening allegations against Gaiman but that Netflix said that the people who worked on the second season wouldn't be fully "compensated" by Netflix if the episodes didn't air.

"It’s really concerning, but I know that Netflix, at the time, felt, ‘God, we spent two years making this thing. There’s all these actors and writers and directors involved that, if we didn’t air it, wouldn’t be fully compensated for it,'" says Goyer. "And so we just decided, we’re going to let this work speak for itself. But I’d be crazy to say it wasn’t weird."

The Sandman season 2 will be released by Netflix in three parts - one on July 3, one on July 24, and the final on July 31.

David Goyer on Sandman Ending, Neil Gaiman Allegations and Blade Reboot