It hasn’t been an easy road to the small screen for Dead Boy Detectives, but if anything the series has ended up at the right place after it was announced to be joining fellow Neil Gaiman adaptation The Sandman on Netflix.
The supernatural comic book caper was originally ordered as an HBO Max pilot, with the intention of acting as a spinoff to fellow DC show Doom Patrol. It was subsequently handed a full-season order, before being shifted over to Netflix in February 2023 after freshly-minted DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran decided it wasn’t the right fit for the roster of TV shows they were planning on developing as part of their refreshed cinematic universe.
Fortunately, The Sandman had managed to escape decades in development hell to become one of the most popular episodic originals at Netflix’s disposal, with Gaiman confirming shortly after Dead Boy Detectives found a new home that it would be set in the same mythology.
As the title suggests, Dead Boy Detectives will trace the adventures of George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri as Edwin Payne and Charles Rowlands, best friends and ghosts who use their experience of the afterlife to solve unexplainable and paranormal cases in the realm of the living.
The ensemble cast also features Kassius Nelson, Yuyu Kitamura, Jenn Lyon, Briana Cuoco, Lukas Gage, David Iacono and Ruth Connell, with Steve Yockey overseeing development and serving as co-showrunner with Beth Schwartz. Much like The Sandman, co-creator of the source material Gaiman is on board as an executive producer, with Jeremy Carver and Sarah Schechter on producorial duties, too.
A ghostly procedural with buddy elements has the potential to be a big hit for Netflix, especially when the promotion is leaning heavily into The Sandman element by making it perfectly clear both shows exist in the same universe.
After a troublesome road to streaming that saw the project first announced in September of 2021, Dead Boy Detectives has locked in an April 25th release date for its eight-episode run. Whether or not it exists longer than that is entirely down to how many subscribers decide to check it out, but one reason to be optimistic that it won’t be the streaming service’s latest one-and-done fantasy series is the fact The Sandman was renewed for a second run in fairly short order.
The connective tissue is there, but Dead Boy Detectives also looks as though it’s capable of standing on its own two feet.
