Netflix Sets 'Dead Boy Detectives' Premiere Date

The Sandman universe grows outside of Max, with a bit more Vertigo

Netflix has put the Dead Boy Detectives on assignment. The only live-action TV series based on a DC comic in the near future that won’t be on Max will premiere on the redder streamer worldwide on April 25.

Coming from the Vertigo imprint, the Dead Boy Detectives were created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner. The series was originally ordered for what was then-HBO Max just as Warner Bros. Discovery was forming in April 2022. Too far outside the realm of the DC Universe being built by new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran by the end of that year, the move to Netflix was made official last February, and is part of the Sandman universe, another Gaiman creation with a Netflix adaptation that premiered in August 2022.

The eight first-season episodes that will drop on premiere are the simply-titled “Pilot”, and then “The Case of the Creeping Forest”, “The Case of the Dandelion Shrine”, “The Case of Devlin House”, “The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers”, “The Case of the Two Dead Dragons”, “The Case of the Very Long Stairway”, and “The Case of the Hungry Snake”. The series’s official description reads “ Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), ‘the brains’ and ‘the brawn’ behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.” It’s also been described as “a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief and death through the lens of Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland … and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace. It’s a lot like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.”

The series also stars Jenn Lyon, Briana Cuoco, Lukas Gage, David Iacono and Ruth Connell, reportedly reprising her role as Night Nurse from Doom Patrol. Steve Yockey, developer of Max’s The Flight Attendant, developed the series for television and serves as co-showrunner and executive producer alongside Beth Schwartz, Gaiman, Greg Berlanti, Jeremy Carver, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman. The first episode is directed and executive produced by Lee Toland Krieger. Berlanti Productions produces in association with Warner Bros. Television, where Berlanti Productions is still under an overall deal.

Source: Variety