pemberly

So this is going to be a post explaining why I completely believe the show has been renewed, albeit quietly and why it has continued to stay quiet. 

Dead Boy Detectives is officially past its first 90 days of release and we’ve had no announcement about it being canceled. If Netflix had wanted to simply cancel it (like way too many other shows) we would have likely heard already. There’s no reason to delay a cancellation announcement. 

Netflix per more recent articles have cited completion rates as being one of the key metrics for renewal. Shows with above a “50 percent” completion rate have a better chance of getting renewed. While we don’t know what Dead Boy Detectives is, I would bet it’s at least above 50 percent. 

In regards to observations, the continued engagement of the cast and writers is at minimum encouraging. From the cast to the showrunners, writers, and other crew have continually posted or reposted fan art or articles highlighting the show over the past 3 months. It points to one belief I have stood by the last few months: If the show was going to be or had been canceled the cast and crew would not bother. Why continue to engage with a show’s fandom if you were never going to work on it again?

Next up is one obviously important factor in decisions: cost. Dead Boy Detectives firstly was filmed in Vancouver, BC which is widely known as a less expensive place to produce TV (one reason many shows film up in Canada). Secondly Netflix, while distributing Dead Boy Detectives, did not produce the show. It was produced entirely by outside production companies as shown here.

Lastly Netflix does not own the rights to the show. The show's rights were previously bought and are fully owned by Steve Yockey. When you add all this up it points to the fact that while Netflix aired the show, it cost the streamer far less money to make it in comparison to shows they produced themselves. One such example is sadly: Shadow and Bone. (This was verified on IMDB Pro, I advise anyone wanting to see it to do a free trial and check it out there)

The biggest “soft sign” I have seen thus far is this Deadline interview with Greg Berlanti of Berlanti Productions. Now this interview addresses multiple shows, but when you scroll down there’s one rather clear and really easy to interpret question. 

Given that there is only one show currently named “Dead Boy Detectives” it seems all but certain Netflix (albeit quietly) renewed the show and are holding back the announcement for other reasons.

Those reasons I believe boil down to one extremely disappointing event: Neil Gaiman’s sexual assault scandal. If you want a breakdown of the news and a thread pointing out his behavior it has kindly been cited here. Shortly afterward NG canceled any events he was planned to appear at and has been silent entirely on his social media or tumblr mainly since July 2nd.

Now it’s likely he is addressing this in private, as he should be as these kinds of allegations should never be ignored or brushed under the rug. However in regards to Dead Boy Detectives his name has been tied to the show from the start, despite the fact he had little hand in making it. He himself stated on his tumblr that the show was Steve Yockey’s creation, not his. His only contributions were writing three scenes, and being an executive producer. 

Despite this the potential for bad PR, especially for Netflix, remains. After the Baby Reindeer scandal where everyone, Netflix included, was accused of lying I would surmise they are trying to avoid any more bad PR after that fiasco.

Do I think they are going to delay it forever? No and I don’t believe they would want to. Since SDCC has now passed, the only time frame I can think of for hearing anything (and this is speculation obviously) is after Sandman finishes filming in mid August up till mid September for Geeked Week.