We’ll Get to See Even More of Death in The Sandman Season 2
Kirby teases a story highly anticipated by fans — and Neil Gaiman himself.
Kirby was only in one episode of Netflix’s The Sandman, but she instantly stole the show as the gentle personification of Death, the older sister of Tom Sturridge’s Dream. One of the seven Endless — cosmic beings that personified such Big Ideas as Despair, Desire, and more — Death has long been a fan-favorite since she first appeared in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics in 1989. Gaiman’s depiction of Death as a friendly goth girl in jeans and a T-shirt flew in the face of traditional iterations of the Grim Reaper, and Kirby’s portrayal in the Netflix adaptation was perfectly in tune with the one Gaiman created on the page. It’s no wonder her episode, “The Sound of Her Wings,” remains the best episode of the show.
So it’s only natural that fans would want more of Kirby’s Death in The Sandman Season 2. But while news of Season 2’s release remains uncertain, Kirby is certain that fans will be “hugely excited” for what’s in store for Death. In an interview with Inverse ahead of her role in Apple TV+’s Sugar, Kirby teased a storyline from The Sandman comics that both fans and Gaiman have long waited to see adapted to the screen.
“There is one of the stories from The Sandman I’ve spoken about, that fans are hugely excited about and Neil is really excited about it,” Kirby tells Inverse. “I'm hoping that we get a chance to explore that in subsequent episodes, that are hopefully coming soon.”
Death is Dream’s closest sibling among the Endless.
The story that Kirby is referring to is the “Season of Mists” arc (the fourth Sandman volume), which is kicked off when the Endless siblings are called together for a family meeting. It’s in this family meeting where we meet the rest of the Endless siblings — we’d already met Death, Despair, and Desire in the first season, but there are three more: Destiny, Destruction, and Delirium (who began her life as Delight). Kirby has previously teased her excitement to get to show these family dynamics, telling Collider, “the complexities... of those dynamics, [we] see them even more this season.”
It’s at this family meeting that Dream is pushed to correct one of his worst mistakes: the punishment of his former lover Nada, who he had banished to Hell for refusing his offer of immortality. Death is the one who encourages him to right this wrong (though unbeknownst to both of them, Destiny was the one who helped create this sticky situation — every family is complicated!) And thus begins one of the most acclaimed story arcs of The Sandman. Though Death doesn’t factor too much in this storyline, there’s always the chance her role could be expanded, especially with the universal embrace of Kirby’s portrayal of the character. For now, we’ll just have to wait until The Sandman Season to see if we’ll get to see more of Kirby’s Death onscreen.
