Dead Boy Detectives is debuting on Netflix this month, and it is based on the comics by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III. The show takes place in the same universe as The Sandman, but it follows a group of younger characters. The series stars George Rexstrew (Edwin Paine), Jayden Revri (Charles Rowland), Kassius Nelson (Crystal Palace), and Yuyu Kitamura (Niko). ComicBook.com recently spoke with showrunners Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz, and they talked about casting so many fresh faces.
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“Our casting director, David [Rapaport], is in LA and he worked with a casting director in Vancouver, one in New York, two in the UK, and one in Australia that cast a very, very, very wide net to find these kids, and quite frankly, really knocked it out of the park,” Yockey shared. “And I’ll just say that George wore a schoolboy coat and tie to every one of his auditions and chemistry reads, which I instantly was like – I’m not suggesting actors should do this – but I instantly was like, ‘Oh, well he’s Edwin and that’s it.’”
“And then the minute we saw Jayden, we sort of knew he was going to be Charles, but we put them together. That was really telling for us,” he continued. “We found Kassius after that, Yuyu came to us from Hong Kong. She submitted a tape … I saw her and I was like, ‘This is Niko.’ And what was crazy about that character is we knew what was going to happen later in the season, but in the pilot, she didn’t have any lines. She improvised the one line that she has … So she just delivered in spades.”
“So we are thrilled with our cast and they aren’t just good at their roles. They’re all good people and they all work very hard, which is great,” Yockey shared.
We also spoke with Rexstrew and Revri who talked about bonding in real life.
“Well, we first met at Heathrow Airport before flying to Vancouver to do the pilot,” Rexstrew shared.
“We pretty much gave each other a life spiel within the first 20 minutes,” Revri added. “Literally knew everything about each other straight away.”
“And then a couple of days later, we started rehearsing for the pilot, and we did our first read,” Rexstrew continued. “It was the two of us, and Lee Krieger, our director … Hopefully, it works.”
You can check out our Dead Boy Detectives interviews at the top of the page.
What Is Dead Boy Detectives About?
You can read Netflix’s description of the series here: “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.”
Dead Boy Detectives will debut exclusively on Netflix on Thursday, April 25th.
