Summary

• Dead Boy Detectives expands The Sandman universe with a fresh take on supernatural mysteries and ties to The Endless siblings.
• Originally a spin-off of The Sandman comics, the series found its place on Netflix after initially being developed for Max.
• With the potential for crossovers and spin-offs, fans can expect more interconnected stories within The Sandman franchise.

While most people would assume all series based on DC Comics characters would be on the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service Max, Netflix actually has its own little shared universe based on a popular DC Comics run. In August 2022, they released The Sandman, an adaptation of the groundbreaking 1990s comic of the same name. While fans eagerly await season two of The Sandman, they were treated to a nice surprise as the franchise expanded with Dead Boy Detectives when it dropped on April 26, 2024.

Dead Boy Detectives might look like just another supernatural-themed mystery series to anyone scrolling by, as there are no overt references to The Sandman or the wider DC Universe. Yet once someone clicks on it, they will quickly see that it is part of the larger Sandman franchise. Here is how Dead Boy Detectives connects to The Sandman, what it might mean for the future of both series, and what DC series Dead Boy Detectives was originally intended to be a spin-off of.

Dead Boy Detective Sandman Crossover

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Dead Boy Detectives focuses on Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) and Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew), two young men who decide not to enter the afterlife but to stay on Earth to investigate crimes involving the supernatural along with their human ally, Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), a human medium who can see ghosts. While The Sandman himself, Morpheus/Dream, does not appear in the series, two of his siblings do.

The first and most prominent is Death, with Kirby reprising her role from The Sandman. Given that the Dead Boy Detectives characters Charles and Edwin have not passed on into the afterlife, it makes sense that Death would appear, and while her role is a small one, it is an important part of the entire series. Howell-Baptiste is as great as she was in The Sandman and forms a strong connective tissue between the two properties.

The other member of the Dream and Death family that appears on the show is Despair, once again played by Donna Preston. While her role in The Sandman was minor, she plays a bigger role in the seventh episode, "The Case of the Very Long Stairway,” of Dead Boy Detectives. Audiences see a glimpse of Dream and Desire's domain in The Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives shows Despair's place of power, The Grey Realm. Fittingly, the gray color palette matches the feelings of depression.

Dream, Death, and Despair are beings known as The Endless. The Endless are cosmic beings who embody forces of nature in the DC Universe. The Endless are often depicted as a family unit and are among the most powerful beings in the DC Universe. They are also distinct from gods. In addition to Dream, Death, and Despair, the other family members include Desire (played by Mason Alexander Park in The Sandman), Delirium, Destiny, and Destruction. Now that the Dead Boy Detectives have encountered two of the Endless, they are playing in a much bigger universe than they could have imagined.

The Dead Boy Detectives Originated in The Sandman Comics

It is fitting that the Dead Boy Detective series is a spin-off of The Sandman series as the characters originated in The Sandman comics. They were created by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III in The Sandman #25 from April 1991 during the "Seasons of the Mist" storyline. That introductory issue was the origin of how the two deceased boys meet. Gaiman would bring the characters back and unite them as the Dead Boy Detectives in the 1993/1994 comic "The Children's Crusade", a crossover event by Neil Gaiman with other Vertigo titles at the time, including The Black Orchid, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Arcana and Doom Patrol.

Since then, the characters have been greatly linked to the works of their creator, Neil Gaiman, and the wider Sandman universe. They made multiple appearances in the comic Books of Magic, which were originally created by Neil Gaiman. In 2001, they received their own four-issue mini-series, Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives, by future Winter Soldier creator Ed Brubaker and artist Bryan Talbot, while 2003's Death: At Death's Door by Jill Thompson showed the events of the "Seasons of the Mist" storyline the Dead Boy Detectives were introduced through Death's point of view. Thompson would later produce a manga-style Dead Boy Detectives series.

The Dead Boys Detective are a vital part of The Sandman universe. While they might not have the biggest impact on the plot, they flesh out the world and create an interesting new corner of the DC Universe. That is why creators have been attracted to the material; in fact, they were originally adapted in a non-Sandman format, and their series was initially conceived as a spin-off of another DC Universe series.

The Dead Boy Detectives Were Almost a Spin-Off of Another DC Series

While the Dead Boy Detectives originated in The Sandman, they actually were originally adapted into live-action in another series. The characters made their first live-action appearance in the Max series Doom Patrol. Doom Patrol was a critically acclaimed series that focused on a misfit group of characters who bucked every convention of being superheroes. The Doom Patrol and the Dead Boy Detectives originally crossed over in the "Children's Crusade" comic series, so it made sense for them to crossover. They appeared in the third episode of Season 3, titled "Dead Patrol," which features Ty Tennant as Edwin Payne, Sebastian Croft as Charles Rowland, and Madalyn Horcher as Crystal Palace. They help the Doom Patrol escape the afterlife, and one of their members, Dorothy, joins them at the end of the episode.

Three weeks before "Dead Patrol" aired, it was announced that Dead Boy Detectives was being developed as a series for Max and would be a spin-off of Doom Patrol. Yet by November 2021, the main characters had been recast. While the series was originally given a full season order by Max in February 2023, it was confirmed that the series would instead move over to Netflix as it did not fit with new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran's plans for Max's DC shows to be set in their new DC Universe.

The change over to Netflix did allow the creators to make Dead Boy Detectives a more overt spin-off of The Sandman. Neil Gaiman officially confirmed that the two series would occur in the same universe in April 2023. The plan supposedly was always for Dead Boy Detectives to be connected to The Sandman franchise as well as Doom Patrol, but because The Sandman airing on Netflix while Dead Boy Detectives was being developed at Max, they were not allowed to use overt references to The Sandman due to Netflix licensing deal. When Dead Boy Detectives officially moved over to Netflix, more overt connections to The Sandman included characters like Death or Despair.

Yet one element does remain from its original status as a Doom Patrol spin-off. Ruth Connell plays Night Nurse in Doom Patrol, the same role she played in The Doom Patrol episode "Dead Patrol."

Will Dead Boys Detectives Appear in The Sandman Season 2?

It is currently unknown if Dead Boys Detectives will return for Season 2. However, The Sandman Season 2 is in the works, so it is entirely possible that references to the series' events will be included or that the characters will appear. Despair did say she would call upon Edwin later, possibly setting up a role in The Sandman Season 2. Given that the characters originated in The Sandman comics, it would make sense for them to crossover, although it will likely skip over their introductory storyline from the comics since now their series has covered it.

This could be the beginning of an interconnected universe of stories based on The Sandman comics. We at MovieWeb already outlined some potential spin-off series of The Sandman that Netflix could make that would allow it to rival that of Warner Bros. Harry Potter or any of Disney's interconnected Star Wars series. Series based on Death or even a new interpretation of Lucifer that is closer to the comic than the original Fox/Netflix series remain possibilities.

Jenna Coleman played Joanna Constantine, a reimagined version of John Constantine. Due to the character rights being tied up at Warner Bros. and Netflix not being allowed to use him, it could open the door for her and the Dead Boy Detectives to team up for their own mystery in a potential season two or another spin-off series. The skies are the limit for this new DC franchise.