Dead Boy Detectives is living up to its name, being buried by Netflix after just one season. It took a long time for the Neil Gaiman series to finally make it to screens, and with its connections to the popular Sandman series, Netflix clearly expected another huge hit. While the series did perform well in its reviews, as confirmed by Variety, it seems that lackluster viewership sealed the fate of a show that was lucky to be made at all.
Dead Boy Detectives was originally ordered as a pilot for Max in 2021, which gained a series order the following year. However, Warner Bros. decided that they no longer wanted the show for Max, but as it seemed to be on the verge of being canceled, it was bought by Netflix in 2023. With the streamer already having The Sandman on their books, it seemed that they were investing heavily in the world of Neil Gaiman.
Despite its torrid route to screen, Dead Boy Detectives surprised everyone on its debut in April when its reviews proved to be stronger than Gaiman’s Sandman series. The show also managed to pull off the impossible by pleasing both critics and audiences alike, gaining 90% and 92% scores, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. While The Sandman did just enough to secure a second season, it seems that this is the end of the road for Dead Boy Detectives.
Dead Boy Detectives’ Sandman Connections
Dead Boy Detectives centers on two dead teenage detectives, Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri). Born decades apart, the pair only find each other after their deaths, and they begin working together to solve supernatural mysteries. They are aided in their cases by a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), and also come into contact with two characters familiar to Sandman fans.
Crossing over from Sandman are Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death and Donna Preston as Despair. These small threads between the two shows seemed to suggest that Netflix would be looking to develop a universe based around other connected characters from Gaiman’s world, but despite the teases, audiences just didn’t seem to care as much about Dead Boy Detectives as they did about Sandman.
This is a shame, as the stars of the series were clearly onboard with the idea of more Sandman crossovers coming in future. In an interview with Screen Rant, co-showrunner Steve Yockey said that it “would be cool” to consider other crossovers. He said at the time:
“I think as long as there is an emotional and narrative reason to have them, yes. But I don’t think we’re just going to be pulling people willy-nilly just to get the kind of pop.”
It seems that all crossovers – both willy-nilly or otherwise – are now completely off the cards. Whether any of the characters from Dead Boy Detectives manage to find their way into the cast of the Sandman in the future, we can only wait and see. It would be nice for their shared universe to acknowledge the detective duo at some point in the upcoming season.
Dead Boy Detectives
is streaming in full on Netflix.