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Trailer revealed for Netflix's superb-looking Sandman spin-off

This Neil Gaiman spin-off looks a whole lot lighter and funnier than The Sandman...

Trailer revealed for Netflix's superb-looking Sandman spin-off
Andrew Williams
05 April 2024

A new 3-minute trailer has dropped for Dead Boy Detectives, the upcoming spin-off of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

The show launches on April 25 at Netflix, and all eight episodes of the first season are expected to land on that date.

Excited? Concerned? We think this (possibly final) trailer gives you a pretty good idea how Dead Boy Detectives will feel, vibes-wise. Take a look:

It’s clear Dead Boy Detectives is not a continuation of The Sandman in the traditional sense. The tone is a lot lighter, YA-infused, which is why it has attracted more comparisons to Lockwood & Co than The Sandman.

And, as Netflix fans may know, Lockwood & Co was canned after one season, despite being great. We’ll be crossing our fingers extra hard for Dead Boy Detectives later this month.

It’s the story of Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, who die but do not enter the afterlife. Instead, they set up a ghost detective agency, and are joined by Kassius Nelson’s Crystal Palace.

Dead Boy Detectives has not had the simplest route to our screens. It was originally going to be an HBO Max show, but was sold on to Netflix in February 2023.

We originally thought Gaiman was staying fairly distanced from Dead Boy Detectives, as he is only credited for his creation of the source material — he had much greater involvement in The Sandman. However, Gaiman did post up his own warm impressions on Instagram after this trailer was released.

“It’s so good — funny, smart, weird, and full of that vertigo-style magic, ghostiness and cool. Three weeks,” Gaiman wrote.

Want to support Dead Boy Detectives? Set a reminder to give it a watch from April 25, as those first couple of weeks of viewing figures matter a whole lot these days.