HBO Max Orders ‘Doom Patrol’ Spinoff ‘Dead Boy Detectives’

The golden age of TV shows based on DC Comics continues with yet another series ordered over at HBO Max — which already has original series based on Peacemaker, Harley Quinn, Pennyworth, and Doom Patrol. 

This new show is actually a spinoff from Doom Patrol called Dead Boy Detectives. The concept was created at DC in the early 1990s by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Matt Wagner in the pages of Gaiman’s landmark fantasy series The Sandman. The title pretty much says it all; the characters, Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, are the ghosts of two dead kids who solve crimes. The Dead Boy Detectives appeared in Doom Patrol’s third season, played by Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant. On the spinoff, they’ll be played by George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri, respectively. The show will also feature Ruth Connell reprising her role as Night Nurse from Doom Patrol.

Here is how the official press release describes the eight episode series:

It’s 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.

Doom Patrol writer Steve Yockey serves as showrunner on the series and wrote the pilot episode. Lee Toland Krieger, director of Celeste and Jesse Forever and The Vicious Kind, directed the pilot. Krieger also directed the pilot of another DC TV series, Superman & Lois.

The first three seasons of Doom Patrol are streaming on HBO Max; a fourth has already been ordered by the service. And The Sandman itself (minus the Dead Boy Detectives) is getting its own streaming TV adaptation; Netflix recently wrapped production on the first season of the show, which is expected to premiere on the service some time in 2022.