Another DC Comics concept is on the way to our TV screens as HBO Max has officially ordered Dead Boy Detectives to series. The “horror detective” series based on characters from Sandman and Dead Boy Detectives comics 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. So, it’s a lot like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.”
Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant, Supernatural, Doom Patrol) wrote the pilot episode and serves as showrunner. Yockey, Jeremy Carver (Doom Patrol, Supernatural), Greg Berlanti (You, The Flash), and Sarah Schechter (The Flight Attendant, You) are executive producers on the series. Lee Toland Krieger (Superman & Lois, Green Lantern) directed the pilot episode and also served as an executive producer on the pilot alongside David Madden (Superman & Lois). Based on characters created for DC by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, the series is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Yockey, Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Krieger are all under overall deals with WBTV.
George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri star as Dead Boy Detectives Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, and Kassius Nelson (“Last Night in Soho,” Hollyoaks) stars as Crystal Palace. Additional series stars include Briana Cuoco (The Flight Attendant, Harley Quinn) as Jenny the Butcher, Ruth Connell (Supernatural) as the Night Nurse (reprising her role from the “Dead Patrol” episode of Doom Patrol), Yuyu Kitamura (The Expatriates) as Niko, and Jenn Lyon (Claws, Justified) as Esther.
“We are excited to be expanding further into the DC Universe with Steve, Jeremy and the Berlanti team with this thrilling new spin on a detective series,” HBO Max Head of Original Content Sarah Aubrey says. “We were fascinated by the world of the Dead Boy Detectives that Steve and Jeremy first introduced in ‘Doom Patrol,’ and cannot wait to follow the supernatural sleuths in the lurid mysteries to come.”
“I’ve been obsessed with this comic for a long time, so it’s a true passion project,” Steve Yockey adds. “Jeremy, Berlanti Productions, DC, WBTV, HBO Max — they’re all encouraging me to run with every wild, bizarre, and unsettling choice. The result is going to be really dark fun.”
