A major crossover event is about to take place at Netflix. After the streaming company officially acquired Dead Boy Detectives, which was initially set for HBO Max, it has been confirmed that Dead Boy Detectives will take place in the same universe as The Sandman, the streamer’s popular adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comic book of the same name.
Gaiman, who co-created both comics and is a showrunner on The Sandman, confirmed the news on Twitter earlier this month. After congratulating showrunner Steve Yockey on wrapping production of Dead Boy Detectives, Gaiman was asked by a fan if the upcoming series was set in the “Sandman TV universe, Doom Patrol universe, or its own thing.” Gaiman replied by confirming that Dead Boy Detectives is in fact set in the “Sandman Universe, I think it’s safe to say now.”
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The news isn’t necessarily much of a surprise. Dead Boy Detectives is based on characters created by Neil Gaiman, Matt Wagner, and Malcolm Jones III and is described as “a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief, and death through the lens of Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, two dead British teenagers, and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace.” While Edwin and Charles made their first television appearance in Doom Patrol Season 3, they first appeared as characters in Gaiman’s comic The Sandman Volume 25.
A spinoff surrounding Edwin and Charles was first confirmed to be in the works in September 2021, when Variety reported that Steve Yockey wrote the pilot. Just a few months later in April 2022, TVLine confirmed that HBO Max ordered the eight-episode horror detective series. It was then announced in February 2023 that Dead Boy Detectives was sold from HBO Max to Netflix. Yockey is attached to the show as showrunner and executive producer. Jeremy Carver, Greg Berlanti, and Sarah Schechter will also executive produce.
Alongside Dead Boy Detectives and new episodes of The Sandman, Gaiman also currently has several other projects in the works, including Good Omens Season 2 and an adaptation of his novel Anansi Boys, which is currently in post-production and slated to premiere as part of Amazon Prime Video’s content lineup. Dead Boy Detectives is expected to premiere sometime in 2024, per Screen Rant, but an exact premiere date has not yet been announced.
