August 19, 2022
Netflix offers Special Two-Part Bonus Episode of THE SANDMAN – Music by David Buckley
For those of us who binge-watched Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s superlative fantasy series THE SANDMAN and thought Episode 5 was the finale one – you’ll be delighted to hear that Netflix, while they haven’t officially renewed a second season of the series yet, but they just revealed special two-part bonus episode now available to stream, featuring A Dream of a Thousand Cats (written by series creator Neil Gaiman himself) and Calliope.
“The 10 episodes of The Sandman that premiered on Netflix earlier this month cover the first two volumes of the comic created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg,” wrote Christian Holub at EW.com. “But as readers of the comic know, there’s a lot more where that came from. The original run of The Sandman comic covers 10 volumes, not to mention the various spin-offs and prequels/sequels that have come in the years since. It turns out that Netflix isn’t done exploring the deep well of Sandman stories.”
Premiering today on Netflix, the two-part episode covers a separate arc from the Sandman comic book series, but like the main story, it will chronicle Dream (Tom Sturridge) caring for his realm while all sorts of creatures pop between dimensions.
As reported today by Collider, “The two-part bonus episode will tell two short stories: A Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope. The former is one of the most popular tales from the Sandman universe, and it centers around a Siamese cat that loses hope in humanity after witnessing a brutal murder. She then meets Dream, who takes her to a wonderfully different world. “Calliope” follows a frustrated author who managed to write a best-selling novel, but now can’t follow up with a second installment. He then strikes a deal with an entity in order to find his creativity once again.”
“The two-part bonus will feature one animated story… as well as a live-action story,” wrote Matt Kim at IGN. “The first section is called A Dream of A Thousand Cats – it will be animated, and adapts the storyline from the comic of the same name.” Dream Of A Thousand Cats features the voices of Sandra Oh as The Prophet, Rosie Day as The Tabby Kitten, David Gyasi as The Grey Cat, Joe Lycett as The Black Cat, Neil Gaiman as The Skull Crow, James McAvoy as Golden-Haired Man, David Tennant as Don, Georgia Tennant as Laura Lynn, Michael Sheen as Paul, Anna Lundberg as Marion, Nonso Anozie as the Wyvern, Diane Morgan as the Gryphon and Tom Wu as the Hippogriff.”
The second segment, “Calliope,” Kim reported, is a live-action drama which stars Melissanthi Mahut (the voice of Kassandra in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey) as the eponymous Muse. In the comics, Calliope was captured by a 20th-century writer in order to give him constant inspiration.
Episode 11 is scored by David Buckley, who composed the music for the previous episodes of THE SANDMAN.
