The Night Nurse may not have been able to drag the Dead Boy Detectives out of the world of the living, but Netflix could. The streamer has canceled their adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comics after just one season, TheWrap has learned.
The series starred Jayden Revri and George Rexstrew as Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne respectively, a pair of teenagers who were both killed unexpectedly. When they meet in the afterlife, they quickly become best friends and decide to team up to form a detective agency, which gives both the comics that served as the inspiration and the show itself its title.
Together, the ghosts solve supernatural mysteries that only they are capable of solving. The thing is, they aren’t supposed to hang around the world of the living. Because Edwin was technically a sacrifice (mostly unintentionally), he’s supposed to reside in hell. Both boys are on the run from the Night Nurse, who oversees that journey.
“Dead Boy Detectives” saw a complicated journey to the screen, as it was originally developed and shot as a Max streaming original. As showrunner Steve Yockey explained to TheWrap in April, they only had two episodes left to film when the decision was made to move to Netflix.
“What actually happened was, we were making the show at Max. There was some uncertainty there on when exactly they would be able to release the show, based on release windows and things that we aren’t privy to,” he said at the time. “And Netflix wanted the show, because they had ‘Sandman,’ and it takes place in the universe.”
According to the showrunner, he and his team had “a lot of conversations about Season 2,” including who they would want to bring back — the first season ended on a cliffhanger for at least two cast members. But he and co-showrunner Beth Schwartz never had a goal for the number of seasons the series should run.
“I don’t think we have a season number in mind because it isn’t that kind of show, because it is very case of the week and we can always find season arcs,” Yockey explained. “Both of us come off of 23-episodes-a-season shows, so we’re used to breaking longer things. But I will say, I’ve known since we wrote the pilot what the last scene is. So I feel like we have a — we’re pointed in the direction.”
Unfortunately, fans won’t get to see what that direction was.
Schwartz also worked on DC shows “Arrow” and “Legends of Tomorrow,” as well as the indie comic-inspired “Sweet Tooth.” Yockey also has experience in the DC Comics world, with his previous work including writing on “Doom Patrol.”
“Dead Boy Detectives” is now streaming on Netflix.
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