The Dead Boy Detectives have been sent to the afterlife prematurely.
Despite positive reviews (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong viewership (at least initially), Variety reports that Netflix's supernatural mystery series has been cancelled after just a single season.
The show - which is set in the same universe as The Sandman - got off to a strong start, managing to stay in the Netflix Top 10 English TV charts for three weeks after its release. It racked-up just 3.1 million views in its first three days of availability (Netflix defines a view as total series runtime divided by total hours viewed) before climbing to 4.7 million. It then dropped to just 1.8 million views in week three before falling off the Top 10 chart.
Created by Neil Gaiman, the undead duo were first introduced in the pages of The Sandman before going on to appear in the likes of The Books of Magic, Children's Crusade, Doom Patrol, and more. The story focuses on Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, a pair of murdered school boys who decide not to enter the afterlife in order to stay on earth and investigate crimes involving the supernatural.
The news was met with a lot of disappointment from fans of the show, who have been taking to Twitter to express their frustration.
The official logline for the show reads: “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 (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), ‘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 (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.”
Rowland and Paine actually appeared in the third season of Doom Patrol, but were played by different actors (Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant).
Dead Boy Detectives is part of The Sandman universe and based on the beloved comic series from Neil Gaiman. Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant, Supernatural) and Beth Schwartz (Sweet Tooth, Arrow) serve as co-showrunners, with Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, You), Jeremy Carver (Supernatural), and Sarah Schechter (Riverdale, You) as executive producers.
The series also stars Jennifer Lyon, Briana Cuoco, Lukas Gage, David Iacono, and Ruth Connell.