Fans wonder about what happened to Sandy in Afterlife. Sandy, a fan-favorite on the Netflix show, was written off from After Life Season 3 without any proper explanation as she got bigger and better projects to film.
After Life is a British black comedy-drama series that follows a widower Tony Johnson as he deals with his wife's death with distasteful cynicism directed at everyone.
Season 3 of After Life recently was released on Netflix on January 13, 2022. While fans of the show were glad that a new installment had arrived, some of their favorite supporting characters were missing, dampening their excitement about the Ricky Gervais-created show.
Who is Sandy in After Life?
In the fictional town of Tambury, where After Life is set, there is a local newspaper the Tambury Gazette, where Tony Johnson, the protagonist, played by Ricky Gervais, is the head of feature stories. Sandy is a newly hired feature journalist set to work under Tony at Tambury Gazette. The role of Sandy is played by Mandeep Dhillon.
Since Tony has sworn to himself that he would use his superpower of doing whatever he wants without giving thoughts to other people's feelings to punish the world after his wife's demise, work's not looking good for Sandy, who is set to work directly under him. In fact, on their first meeting, Tony tells her that it should be everybody's moral duty to kill themselves as all professional bosses do.
However, she manages to go under Tony's mean radar after she gets emotional hearing about his dead wife and they both immediately strike up an emotional bond. She even helps him in getting appropriate clothes for his date. And the two characters end up sharing a nurturing and compassionate bond.
Sandy grew up to be one of the most loved characters of the show because if Tony, who is rendered sneering and cynical and hostile after the passing away of his wife, can like her, how could the viewers not.
Why is Sandy Missing from After Life Season 3?
When After Life Season 3 dropped on Netflix on 14 January, fans were left wondering where is Sandy and why is there a new intern in the Tamsbury Gazette in her place.
Was she replaced? Why was she replaced? Did she have to be replaced? And why was she not given a proper send-off when replaced?
The viewers were not only left confused about Sandy missing, but they were also disappointed that she was written off the show without some good writing for her character. Her departure from the newspaper company was not explained, doing her and audiences a great disservice alike.
While Mandeep Dhillon has not talked about the exit of the character she plays played on the show, Ricky Gervais, creator and writer, director, and star of the comedy-drama, has spoken about it.
During his exclusive chat with Digital Spy, he opened up about why was Sandy nowhere to be seen in Season 3. He revealed that he originally had no intentions of taking Sandy out of After Life and had written the show with her included.
But Mandeep became unavailable to film for the show as she was busy filming for her other projects. S0, Ricky rewrote the series without including her and created a new character, that new intern, to replace the fan-favorite Sandy.
For what it's worth, we can say for sure that Ricky never wanted to write Sandy off as she was the character he wrote with Mandeep Dhillon in his mind. He approached her at a Christmas party for the role.
She had previously worked with him in his film David Brent: Life on the Road. She had auditioned and then got the role of receptionist in the movie after she said that 'David Brent scares her' when Ricky asked her what she thought about him.
Though fans did not get a proper closure with Sandy, viewers can be happy for Mandeep as she seems to have taken on a lot of projects since she filmed for the show. We can only wish for her that her afterlife after After Life would be fulfilling and prosperous. She got the lead role in CSI: Vegas in 2021.
Sandy was not the sole character written off. Roisin Conaty's sex worker Roxy also never saw the light of Tambury again because 'there wasn't quite the story with her.'
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