Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s supernatural drama series, ‘Dead Boy Detectives,’ follows the misadventures of Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne as they go about solving paranormal crimes. What sets them apart and makes them perfect for solving these crimes is that they themselves are dead. The teenage ghosts refused to crossover to the other side, preferring to walk the mortal world while running their own detective agency.
As ideal as their situation might seem, things aren’t so easy. Even though they are already dead, they still have a lot to fear from supernatural beings who are more powerful than them. An interesting thing about ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ is that it brings in some familiar characters from another Netflix series, ‘The Sandman.’ The two series have an interesting connection. SPOILERS AHEAD
Dead Boy Detectives First Appeared in The Sandman Comics
‘Dead Boy Detectives’ is based on the characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, with the protagonists Charles and Edwin first appearing in issue 25, published in 1991, of ‘The Sandman’ comic book series. This issue appears in the ‘Season of Mists’ storyline, which is expected to be included in the upcoming season of ‘The Sandman’ in the aftermath of Lucifer’s abandoning of Hell. Gaiman came up with the story with the idea of exploring the genre of boarding school stories with classic horror elements.
Initially, Charles and Edwin were created as independent characters without any significant impact on Sandman’s overall arc. However, Gaiman grew to love the characters and saw immense potential in them. The teenage duo was brought back in ‘The Children’s Crusade,’ which was a crossover story. Later, the Dead Boys received a miniseries of their own titled ‘Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives.’
While ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ exists in the same universe as ‘The Sandman,’ the duo never returned to the comic book series beyond their initial appearance. This allowed them to remain in the parent series’ orbit while allowing the writers the freedom to craft their own stories, independent of Dream and his Endless siblings’ storylines. The same happens in the TV show, as several references connect the two series but don’t overlap so much that a viewer cannot watch it independently of ‘The Sandman.’
Is Tom Sturridge’s Morpheus in Dead Boy Detectives?
The ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ was initially being developed by HBO Max following the backdoor pilot in the third season of ‘Doom Patrol.’ However, when the network dropped the show, it was transferred to Netflix, who utilized the opportunity that was too good to pass. With ‘The Sandman’ already on Netflix, it would have been a wasted opportunity not to put both stories in the same universe, as Gaiman initially intended. However, the creators of ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ also knew that they couldn’t force any connection between the shows just for the sake of it. Like the comic books, they could maintain the connection and yet have the distance between the two stories that allowed them to work separately from each other.
While it is exciting to have characters crossover from their series, the writers were careful not to bring over any character from ‘The Sandman’ into ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ until it actually meant something. Out of the seven Endless, Death was their most obvious choice to have on ‘Dead Boy Detectives.’ Played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Death appears in the first episode of the series, but her appearance is not without meaning. In fact, her role in the show sets the ground for further cases and their resolution while also being a constant motivator for Charles and Edwin, who don’t want to be seen by Death.
Another character from ‘The Sandman’ to make an appearance in ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ is Despair. While it might seem like a surprising choice, it makes a lot of sense as the characters end up in Hell, and there aren’t many Endless who would be expected to be hanging out there. Despair’s presence, in this case, feels rather natural and a pleasant surprise. Extrapolating from this, Dream, aka Morpheus’s absence from ‘Dead Boy Detectives,’ also makes sense. Considering that the characters never really cross each other’s paths, it would make no sense for Tom Sturridge’s Dream to make an appearance in Edwin and Charles’ story until, of course, the writers find a way to make it happen organically.
