Premiering July 3, 2025, on Netflix, The Sandman Season 2 plunges viewers back into Neil Gaiman’s mythic universe as Dream (Tom Sturridge) battles to reclaim his stolen tools of power—the helm, pouch, and ruby—while confronting the chaos unleashed by his absence. This season deepens the exploration of destiny, desire, and the fragile balance between realms, weaving new tales from the Season of Mists and A Game of You arcs. With haunting visuals and existential stakes, the series continues its alchemy of gothic grandeur and philosophical depth, expanding the roles of the Endless and their celestial rivals.
The ensemble cast returns with electrifying new dimensions, from Lucifer’s icy vengeance to The Corinthian’s bloody evolution. Below, discover the actors embodying gods, monsters, and cosmic forces—each performance a thread in Gaiman’s tapestry of stories within stories.
The Sandman Season 2 Cast
1: Tom Sturridge as Dream / Morpheus
Tom Sturridge’s portrayal of the brooding Lord of Dreams remains the series’ anchor, balancing glacial authority with fractured vulnerability. Fresh off a BAFTA nomination for Season 1, Sturridge delves deeper into Morpheus’ trauma—his century of imprisonment leaving scars that ripple through The Dreaming. This season, he trades his signature silence for strategic fury, confronting rogue nightmares and sibling rivalries with a voice that “sounds like coal falling on snow” (Gaiman’s words). Sturridge’s physicality—all angular poise and shadowed glances—mirrors Dream’s struggle between duty and desire.
For Season 2, Sturridge trained in Baroque fencing and studied Renaissance art to refine Dream’s otherworldly grace. “Morpheus isn’t healing; he’s weaponizing his pain,” the actor reveals. His clashes with Lucifer and Desire expose raw nerve endings, culminating in a universe-altering bargain in Hell. Off-screen, Sturridge collaborated with mime artists to craft Dream’s wordless expressions of loss, ensuring every gesture resonates with ancient weight.
2: Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne
Vivienne Acheampong’s Lucienne evolves from steadfast librarian to Dream’s de facto regent, her loyalty tested by The Dreaming’s unraveling. Acheampong infuses the role with quiet ferocity, her crisp diction and watchful eyes hinting at millennia of unspoken history. This season, Lucienne confronts her own suppressed dreams—flashbacks reveal her past as a raven—adding layers to her meticulous facade.
Acheampong drew inspiration from trailblazing librarians like Audre Lorde, weaving resilience into Lucienne’s battle against cosmic entropy. Her subplot involves safeguarding dreamers from The Corinthian’s manipulations, culminating in a breathtaking standoff in the Library of Souls. “Lucienne isn’t just keeping books,” Acheampong notes. “She’s guarding the fabric of imagination itself.”
3: Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven
Patton Oswalt’s sarcastic, soulful raven returns with sharper wit and higher stakes. Once a human, Matthew’s avian perspective provides levity amid existential dread, but Season 2 pushes him into darker skies. Oswalt’s improvised riffs (“Hell’s brunch menu is just regret tartare”) contrast with raw moments as Matthew’s past resurfaces, forcing him to choose between humanity and duty.
Oswalt recorded lines while hiking to capture Matthew’s breathless urgency during aerial chases. His dynamic with Sturridge deepens, morphing from comic relief to profound kinship. “Matthew is Dream’s conscience with feathers,” Oswalt quips. The role pays tribute to his late wife, Michelle McNamara—a true-crime writer who chased shadows like Matthew.
4: Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian
Boyd Holbrook’s nightmare serial killer escapes cancellation, evolving into a cult leader manipulating the waking world. Holbrook’s chilling charm—a smile like “a knife in velvet”—masks The Corinthian’s panic as he hunts Dream while evading the Fates. This season peels back his origins, revealing his creation as a failed experiment in understanding humanity’s darkness.
Holbrook worked with a forensic psychologist to craft the killer’s ritualistic patterns. His showdowns with Death and a new nightmare (hinted to be The Pharamacist) blur lines between hunter and prey. “He’s not evil—he’s a dark mirror held up to mankind,” Holbrook reflects. The Corinthian’s gold-rimmed glasses hide eyes that now reflect his victims’ memories.
5: Mason Alexander Park as Desire
Mason Alexander Park’s androgynous deity of longing returns with Machiavellian flair, their honeyed voice and predatory grace destabilizing Dream’s quest. Park, nonbinary themself, embodies Desire’s fluidity through costuming that shifts between silk robes and razor-sharp suits. This season, they manipulate mortals into tragic quests for the missing tools, framing Dream for cosmic crimes.
Park studied seduction techniques from The Kama Sutra and 1980s New Wave aesthetics to amplify Desire’s allure. Their scenes with Sturridge crackle with sibling rivalry laced with millennia of betrayal. “Desire doesn’t want to destroy Dream—they want him broken,” Park hints. A rooftop duel in Buenos Aires becomes the season’s most visually surreal sequence.
6: Nina Wadia, Souad Faress & Dinita Gohil as The Fates
Nina Wadia (EastEnders) commands as the Fate Mother—a weaver of destiny with a cutting wit. Souad Faress (West End’s Cleopatra) brings gravitas as the Fate Crone, her voice echoing with prophecies. Dinita Gohil (Bridgerton) mesmerizes as the Fate Maiden, her youth belying ancient wisdom. Together, they embody destiny’s tripartite cruelty, taunting Dream with riddles about his tools’ locations.
The trio filmed scenes in a single take, their overlapping dialogue symbolizing time’s non-linearity. Wadia drew from Hindu cosmology, Faress from Greek oracles, and Gohil from TikTok-era mysticism. “We’re not guides,” Wadia states. “We’re the scissors at the thread’s end.”
7: Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death
Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death remains a revelation—warm, witty, and weary. Season 2 explores her role as Dream’s compassionate counterweight, intervening when his quest endangers mortal souls. Howell-Baptiste radiates stoic warmth in scenes like a 14th-century plague village, where she debates morality with Dream over a child’s soul.
The actor shadowed hospice workers to refine Death’s grace. Her signature black wardrobe now includes subtle ankh jewelry, hinting at Egyptian mythology ties. “Death isn’t an end,” Howell-Baptiste says. “She’s the universe’s most patient teacher.”
8: Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar
Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer returns with regal fury, their Hell reshaped by Dream’s Season 1 victory. Christie’s towering presence and clipped diction mask seething vulnerability as Lucifer plots multiversal vengeance. This season unveils their glittering palace in a dimension of frozen screams and features a jaw-dropping aerial duel with Dream above Cocytus.
Christie cited Milton’s Paradise Lost and Bowie’s personas as inspiration. Their costuming—crystallized feathers and molten gold armor—visually opposes Dream’s starry cloak. “Lucifer’s heart is a collapsed star,” Christie muses. “All that gravity, all that rage.”
