Netflix has officially confirmed that Dead Boy Detectives is headed to the streaming platform as part of The Sandman Universe, also revealing a first teaser trailer during Geeked Week on Saturday.
Introducing the Dead Boy Detectives! ☠️ Here's your first look at the new series, a part of the Sandman Universe, coming in 2024. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/3Iis62MQAp
— Netflix (@netflix) November 11, 2023
The upcoming series follows ghost protagonists Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) and Edwin Paine (George Rexstrew), who found the Dead Boy Detectives agency. After each meeting their untimely demise, Charles and Edwin join forces post-mortem to solve mysteries that continue to plague the living.
In the teaser, Charles introduces himself to viewers as "the brawn" behind the duo's sleuthing operation and credits Edwin as "the brains." For fans of the comics, that pretty much tracks.
The trailer also gives a first look at a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson), who can communicate with Charles and Edwin in the afterlife. Aided by Crystal's supernatural abilities, Charles and Edwin will come face-to-face with everything from witchcraft to Hell and Death personified over the course of the series.
Netflix also released two first-look images, which you can see below.
Created by author Neil Gaiman, the teenage detectives initially appeared in the "Seasons of Mist" storyline in issue #25 of The Sandman comics. And this isn't the first time The Sandman series has birthed a TV spin-off; 2016's Lucifer is based off of the titular Lord of Hell who appeared in The Sandman issue #4.
Beyond The Sandman, the Dead Boy Detectives reemerged in 2001 for a four-issue mini series titled Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives. But other than a brief portrayal of the characters in an episode of Max's Doom Patrol, the mystery-solving teens have yet to have a proper on-screen debut.
From Max to Netflix
Ty Tennant and Sebastian Croft starred as Edwin and Charles, respectively, for Doom Patrol Season 3, leading fans to hope the two actors would join the show's line-up of series regulars. In September 2021, the same month as the Doom Patrol Season 3 release, HBO Max ordered a pilot for a potential Dead Boy Detective show. The streaming platform then ordered an eight-episode series the following April.
But things changed in February 2023 when producers from Warner Bros. Television shopped the series for Netflix, effectively moving Dead Boys Detectives to the streamer where its sister-content from The Sandman Universe is located.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources told the publication that the series "didn’t fit with the new chapter of content that DC executives James Gunn and Peter Safran are building for the comic book powerhouse," who are laser-focused on developing Peacemaker spin-offs like Waller.
Dead Boy Detectives was developed for television by Steve Yockey, who serves as showrunner alongside Beth Schwartz. Yockey also wrote the pilot script and is an executive producer on the series, along with Schwartz, Gaiman, Greg Berlanti, Jeremy Carver, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman.
A release date for Dead Boy Detectives has yet to be announced.
