Is Dead Boy Detectives Connected To Netflix’s Sandman?

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Dead Boy Detectives season 1.

Considering their connections in the comics, audiences have speculated ever since its announcement whether Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives is part of The Sandman universe and season 1 reveals the answer. Dead Boy Detectives follows the afterlife adventures of Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew), an uptight British teenager who died in 1916, and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), a seemingly happy-go-lucky lad who was murdered in the 1980s. The best friends in death have been dodging going to the afterlife for decades, instead remaining on Earth to solve supernatural cases and set other ghosts free.

Those more familiar with the Dead Boy Detectives comics know that Edwin and Charles first appeared not in their own comic book series, but in The Sandman comics. Confusingly, however, the first live-action iteration of the duo, and their living medium best friend, Crystal, was in Doom Patrol. With them both being Netflix productions, it’s fair to wonder if Dead Boy Detectives and The Sandman will cross over any time soon, or even be in the same universe at all.

Dead Boy Detectives Is Part Of The Sandman Universe

It Was Confirmed Early In Episode 1

Luckily, audiences didn’t have long to wait to find out whether Dead Boy Detectives is indeed connected to The Sandman: it is. Kirby Howell-Baptiste appeared early in episode 1, reprising her role as Death from The Sandman. Before that, even, the trailer showed a brief glimpse of her, confirming that she’d appear. Death is not the only character from The Sandman who appears (more on that later), but she is the most prominent one as she ties directly into the Dead Boy Detectives’ backstory.

Edwin and Charles have essentially fallen through the cracks of the afterlife. Thanks to Edwin’s soul being taken to Hell on a technicality, after which he escaped, and Charles stubbornly insisting his soul stay with Edwin after his death, both boys have been dodging going to the afterlife. It’s unclear if Death is aware the two are not where they’re supposed to be – that seems to be more the domain of the afterlife’s Lost & Found department and the Night Nurse. Still, the boys have to clear out every time they solve a case and help a ghost move on before Death comes to collect; otherwise, she might notice them and bring them to the afterlife, as well.

When Dead Boy Detectives Takes Place In The Sandman Timeline

Their Present Isn’t As Interesting As Their Past

It’s not clearly stated when Dead Boy Detectives season 1 takes place exactly, but a bit of math provides the answer. In episode 3, Crystal mentions that the Devlin family has been reliving its trauma for the past 30 years since 1994. That puts it in 2024, set in the same year of its release. The same is true of The Sandman, which is set in 2022, the same year season 1 came out. Though the timelines of their events don’t exactly overlap, then, they’re both set in the modern era, thus enabling them to crossover more thoroughly at a later time.

Interestingly, though, the earliest events of both Dead Boy Detectives season 1 and The Sandman season 1 take place in 1916. It’s the year Edwin Payne was kidnapped by his classmates and sacrificed to summon a demon, his soul being dragged to Hell. It’s also the same year that Morpheus, the titular Sandman and King of Dreams, is trapped by an occult ritual and held captive in a glass cage for over 100 years. It’s entirely possible that later seasons will flash back to that year and reveal that Morpheus and Edwin crossed paths previously, likely without Edwin even knowing it.

Were Edwin & Charles In Sandman Season 1?

The Pair First Appeared In Dead Boy Detectives

Though Sandman characters appear in Dead Boy Detectives season 1, the reverse can not be said for The Sandman season 1. Edwin and Charles don’t appear at all in the first season of the other Neil Gaiman Netflix show. It’s not entirely clear why, but there are a few likely reasons for this. The first is that the world of The Sandman is vast and complicated, and it was a smart decision to put the focus entirely on Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), the rest of The Endless, and the characters more directly tied to the Sandman comics for the story season 1 wanted to tell.

However, the larger reason is that the road to getting Dead Boy Detectives to the screen was a long and winding one. Originally, the Dead Boy Detectives protagonists appeared in a few episodes of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol series, with the episodes acting as something of a backdoor pilot for a planned Dead Boy Detectives spinoff. At the time, Edwin and Charles were played by actors Ty Tennant (David Tennant’s son) and Sebastian Croft, respectively, and Crystal Palace by Madalyn Horcher.

However, after Warner Bros. Discovery’s merger and the subsequent massive overhaul of DC’s movie and TV plans, Doom Patrol was canceled and the Dead Boy Detectives series put on hold. In that time, the series was then moved to Netflix and Crystal, Charles, and Edwin recast to be slightly older. Instead of tying in to Doom Patrol, it instead tied in to The Sandman, which is a more fitting option: after all, the Dead Boy Detectives were first introduced in the comics in Sandman #25 during the “Season of the Mists” arc.

Which Sandman Characters Return In Dead Boy Detectives

Death Isn’t The Only One Of The Endless To Appear

Death isn’t the only Sandman character to appear in Dead Boy Detectives season 1. One of the other Endless, Despair (Donna Preston) appears in episode 7, “The Case of the Very Long Stairway,” in a brief scene when Edwin is trying (again) to escape Hell. After Edwin runs into his old tormentor, Simon, and makes peace with the past, he spies someone peering at them through a mirror. Jumping through, he finds himself in a white room full of mirrors and doorways, with Despair peering through all of them, reveling in the pain and misery of the various people being tormented in Hell.

Like her sister Death, Despair is only in one scene, but she doesn’t hold the same sway and influence over the entirety of Dead Boy Detectives season 1 like Death. Instead, it serves as a great setup for Edwin and Charles to discover that Death is just one of seven of The Endless. With The Sandman season 2 confirmed – and, hopefully, Dead Boy Detectives season 2 also happening – it’s likely that the characters will cross over more significantly in at least one of the shows’ second seasons.