'The Sandman' Spin-Off 'Dead Boy Detectives' Will Arrive on Netflix In April

Netflix's The Sandman franchise is set to get a bit bigger this spring. The streamer has announced that Dead Boy Detectives, an adaptation that was initially meant to be part of the DC Comics television universe before that vertical basically collapsed at Max, has returned to its Neil Gaiman-oriented roots on Netflix and will premiere this April, hopefully with all its references to Dream and the Endless restored. 

The eight-part series will follow the story of Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, a pair of ghosts born decades apart but who have found one another and become best friends in death. Choosing to forgo the afterlife in the name of further adventures together, they launch the Dead Boy Detective Agency, where they investigate all sorts of supernatural crimes (and occasionally do some good along the way).

The characters originally appeared in "Season of Mists," the fourth volume of Gaiman's Sandman, and their story was meant to help illustrate the problems caused by Lucifer's decision to empty and abandon Hell. (I'm not even going to try and explain this further, just read the comics and thank me later.) aiman liked the characters so much that he brought them back for a Vertigo Comics crossover event called Children's Crusade. The pair went on to get their own spin-off comic from writers Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham, which followed them as they investigated a mystery involving the corpses of homeless children washing up on the shores of the Thames.

Whether the Netflix series will end up adapting that story is anyone's guess, but it's fairly likely that Netflix'sThe Sandman series will reach the "Season of Mists" arc in its second season, so consider this something to tide you over until then.

Here's the series' synopsis.

Do you have a pesky ghost haunting you? Has a demon stolen your core memories? You may want to ring the Dead Boy Detectives.

Meet Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, “the brains” and “the brawn” behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal and her friend Niko, they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.

Newcomer George Rexstrew plays Edwin Payne, alongside Jayden Revri (Fate: The Winx Saga) as Charles Rowland. Kassius Nelson (Hollyoaks) is psychic medium Crystal Palace, while Yuyu Kitamura is Niko Saskai. Other members of the series ensemble cast include Jenn Lyon (Justified), Briana Cuoco (Harley Quinn), Ruth Connell (Doom Patrol), Michael Beach (DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Lukas Gage (You), Joshua Colley (Senior Year), and David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty). 

Based on characters from Gaiman's comic series, Dead Boy Detectives was developed for television by Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), who wrote the first episode and serves as showrunner alongside Beth Schwartz (Arrow). Greg Berlanti (Riverdale), Jeremy Carver (Supernatural), Sarah Schechter (You), Leigh London Redman (Gotham Knights), Yockey, Schwartz, and Gaiman serve as executive producers, and the series hails from Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television. 

Dead Boy Detectives will premiere April 25 on Netflix.