HBO Max expands ‘Doom Patrol’ characters’ universe with horror detective drama

Doom Patrol

Warner Bros Discovery-owned HBO Max has ordered an eight-part horror detective series based on DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner. 

Dead Boy Detectives is from Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), Doom Patrol’s Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV). All parties are under overall deals with WBTV.

The show, which HBO Max said has been “born from” DC’s titles The Sandman and Dead Boy Detectives, is described as “like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.”

The original characters first appeared in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol and were originally created for DC by Doctor Who’s Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner.

The story revolves around two dead British teenagers, Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace, exploring loss, grief, and death.

Yockey wrote the pilot episode and serves as showrunner, as well as exec producer alongside Carver, Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (The Flight Attendant).

HBO Max originals chief, Sarah Aubrey, said: “We are excited to be expanding further into the DC Universe with Steve, Jeremy and the Berlanti team with this thrilling new spin on a detective series. We were fascinated by the world of the Dead Boy Detectives that Steve and Jeremy first introduced in Doom Patrol, and cannot wait to follow the supernatural sleuths in the lurid mysteries to come.”