Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives trailer is pleasingly weird, and reveals the big Sandman link

A still image of Charles and Edwin from Dead Boy Detectives, in a forest

(Image credit: Netflix)

Netflix has a new supernatural show coming soon called Dead Boy Detectives, based on characters created by Neil Gaiman, and considering how wholesomely the trailer below starts, it goes to some interesting places by the end.

Dead Boy Detectives follows Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) as two ghosts who help other ghosts to find closure by investigating mysteries around their deaths – who are quickly joined in the show by psychic Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and ghost-seeing Niko (Yuyu Kitamura). The trailer lays this out at the start, and it all sounds very charming, low-key and sweet as a premise. And then the trailer continues…

First, fans of The Sandman (which we rate as one of the best Netflix shows) will immediately clock the appearance of Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, so it's already clear that the Dead Boy Detectives (and friends) will have to do their work on the run.

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And the longer it goes on, the more we get into dimensional travel, demons beings with enlarged jaws, tentacles, blood spatter, and an angler fish the size of a house. It looks fun, and a lot weirder than the basic premise lets on, and I'm 100% on board with that.

The adult age of the 'boys' is a departure from their original appearance in Vertigo comics issues, where they are literally children, but given everything going on in the trailer, that's probably a wise use of creative license…

Dead Boy Detectives will stream on April 25 on Netflix worldwide.

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, meaning he's in charge of persuading our team of writers and reviewers to watch the latest TV shows and movies on gorgeous TVs and listen to fantastic speakers and headphones. It's a tough task, as you can imagine. Matt has over a decade of experience in tech publishing, and previously ran the TV & audio coverage for our colleagues at T3.com, and before that he edited T3 magazine. During his career, he's also contributed to places as varied as Creative Bloq, PC Gamer, PetsRadar, MacLife, and Edge. TV and movie nerdism is his speciality, and he goes to the cinema three times a week. He's always happy to explain the virtues of Dolby Vision over a drink, but he might need to use props, like he's explaining the offside rule.