HBO Max has announced a new series, Dead Boy Detectives, which will be based on the DC characters from the comic series of the same name. The characters originally appeared in HBO's Doom Patrol. This comic series is one of DC’s lesser-known features from the early 1990s and has made relatively few appearances.
HBO has developed this new show to bring the characters into the limelight so that they can be part of expanding the Doom Patrol universe after season 3. So yes, the upcoming series will be a spin-off of the 2019 HBO series, Doom Patrol.
Although HBO had developed Dead Boy Detectives for streaming on HBO Max, it is getting a new home on Netflix. The DC series, which is based on the Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner comics, has been sold by HBO Max to Netflix.
Why was Dead Boy Detectives canceled on Max?
While HBO developed the series, it was canceled by HBO and sold off because DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran had new plans for the shared DC Universe and the series did not quite fit into the picture.
According to this plan, there will be five interconnected shows alongside Peacemaker on HBO Max. Moreover, the DC universe will be unified across movies, TV, and even video games, and in this new scheme of things, the series did not fit in.
On the same note, Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly making some changes in its finances and bringing it into order. For this reason, they have been more interested in maximizing the bottom line and are thus selling movies and TV shows elsewhere. HBO Max would not have been able to market the new series until 2024, after which the show was encouraged to be taken elsewhere.
When can I watch Dead Boy Detectives?
Netflix has already set the premiere date for Dead Boy Detectives. It will be coming to the streaming platform on April 25, 2024, with all eight episodes. The DC series will only be available to watch on Netflix, with a subscription starting at a nominal rate.
The release schedule of Dead Boy Detectives across all regions is as follows:
- Mountain Time (MT) - USA & Canada: April 25, 2024, 1 am
- Central Time (CT) - USA & Canada: April 25, 2024, 2 am
- Atlantic Time (AT) - Canada: April 25, 2024, 4 am
- Greenwich Mean Time (GMT): April 25, 2024, 8 am
- Central European Time (CET): April 25, 2024, 9 am
- Eastern European Time (EET): April 25, 2024, 10 am
- India Standard Time (IST): April 25, 2024, 1:30 pm
- China Standard Time (CST): April 25, 2024, 4 pm
- Japan Standard Time (JST): April 25, 2024, 5 pm
- Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST): April 25, 2024, 6 pm
How many issues of Dead Boy Detectives are there?
The Dead Boy Detectives series consists of 12 comics in total, and they were produced by Toby and Mark Buckingham in 2013 and 2014.
The comics revolve around two fictional supernatural detectives. They have appeared in comic books published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The characters were created by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III in The Sandman #25 (April 1991).
The detective duo are the ghosts of two dead children, Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, who, upon their deaths, chose to stay on Earth to become detectives investigating supernatural crimes.
Watch this space for more updates on the upcoming DC series.