The Sandman's Finale Made Us Wish For A Death-Centric Spinoff: 'We Did Play With Those Ideas,' EP Says

Never thought we'd say this, but wouldn't it have been nice to have more Death?

The reaper herself is at the center of The Sandman's finale, an episode that chronicles the Endless sibling's one day off every century. She runs into a suicidal journalist named Sexton (played by Merlin's Colin Morgan) and they wind up spending the day together, even though he's not entirely sure that she's not insane.

Events that transpire during their 24-hour hangout include: a trip to a club, a stint as hostages, a taxi ride through the park and the procurement of Mad Hettie's soul, which the old woman slipped into in a locket years before but misplaced along the way.

Death — well, the human embodiment of her — dies at the end of the hour and returns to her realm. But she's achieved her goal: Sexton realizes that life is worth living, after all. We see him make a meaningful connection with a woman he met at the club.

Death is such a fun and funny character in the often dark and heavy fantasy series, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays her with an engaging warmth. When I spoke with executive producer Allan Heinberg, I wondered: Was there ever talk about giving Death her own series/spinoff/volume?

"Always," he said. "When we were feeling very expansive in Season 1, we talked about a possible Death spinoff. We talked about Joanna Constantine. We talked about Boyd and The Corinthian, or pairing the Corinthian with Joanna Constantine. We were full of enthusiasm for being able to tell more stories with more of these characters."

However, while the comics on which The Sandman is based had the luxury of divergence, the TV series had to keep Tom Sturridge's Dream at its center. "We learned in Season 1 that the Sandman show was very much about Dream. So we could only use other characters as they contributed to Dream's story. We couldn't stop his story to go and tell Johanna Constantine's story or a Corinthian story," Heinberg explained.

Acknowledging that his Netflix series would've needed "staggering, Stranger Things success" to warrant spinoffs, "we did play with those ideas," Heinberg adds. "They never really got anywhere, but it was more of a wish fulfillment... We were wanting more opportunities to keep everybody around."

 What did you think of The Sandman's swan song? Grade the finale, and Season 2 as a whole, via the polls below. Then, hit the comments with your thoughts!