Although it wasn’t intended to come across as such – at least as far as we know – James Gunn agreeing to sell the live-action adaptation of Dead Boy Detectives off to Netflix was interpreted by many as a huge middle finger being pointed in the direction of the SnyderVerse.
After all, the more fanatical backers of the abandoned mythology had convinced themselves that spamming social media would be enough to convince not just the market-leading streaming service but also Gunn, Peter Safran, David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery, and DC Studios that handing over the rights to a scrapped saga was an achievable goal.
While Dead Boy Detectives has set a precedent ensuring that DC Comics projects are more than capable of being handed over to a direct rival – something we already knew through the existence of both Netflix’s Lucifer revival and Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman – we’d be inclined to say that the SnyderVerse isn’t going to follow suit.
The pilot was initially ordered back in September of 2021, but Netflix has opted to rebuild the series from the ground up, with cinematographer Marc Laliberte revealing on Instagram that principal photography on the first season is now complete.
Knowing how Netflix tends to operate, though, there’s always the chance Dead Boy Detectives will join the lengthy list of high-profile cancellations once the first season eventually arrives. That being said, the aforementioned Lucifer and The Sandman both scored renewals, so maybe DC is immune to the streamer’s rampant wielding of the fantasy axe.