Dead Boy Detectives Stars George Rexstrew & Jayden Revri Talk Chedwin, Chemistry, and More

Rosaline Shahnavaz/Netflix

Spoilers ahead for Dead Boy Detectives season 1.

Much like their characters in the new Netflix series adaptation of Dead Boy Detectives, George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri fell in love at first sight.

“A lot of people said to us, ‘It must be a lot of pressure to represent these two characters who have been best friends for such a long time,’ and the irony of it was that I think for both of us, that was literally the easiest part of the whole thing,” Revri tells Teen Vogue on a recent video call with Rexstrew. “[Our] chemistry, I can guarantee, was something that neither of us even thought about the whole time.”

The ease and immediacy of their connection has both grounded and elevated one of the most original sleuth stories in recent years. Based on the dynamic duo created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner for DC Comics and developed for television by Supernatural producer Steve Yockey, Dead Boy Detectives exists in the same universe as Gaiman’s The Sandman. The new supernatural mystery-dramedy series, which was moved from HBO Max to Netflix, follows the adventures of Edwin Payne (Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Revri), teenagers born decades apart who found one another only in death.

Since meeting by chance over 30 years before the start of the show, Edwin and Charles, wanting to believe that their spiritual existence serves a higher purpose, have helped other ghosts move on to the afterlife — all while attempting to avoid evil witches, Hell, and Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who could separate them for eternity. Whereas Edwin is the book-smart brains of the operation, Charles is the street-smart, self-described brawn, wielding a cricket bat as his primary weapon of choice and traveling with a bottomless backpack.

In the eight-episode first season, out April 25, Edwin and Charles cross paths with a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her new friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura). Together, the new core four are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases in Port Townsend, WA.

Dead Boy Detectives has taken a circuitous route to the small screen. In 2021, 30 years after the characters debuted in The Sandman #25, Yockey and Jeremy Carver co-wrote a backdoor pilot episode of Doom Patrol, which introduced Ty Tennant as Edwin and Sebastian Croft as Charles. Later that year, HBO Max ordered another DBD pilot from Yockey, who wanted to recast and age up the boys slightly to better reflect the adult nature of the storytelling. “We’re using kids that’ll never grow up as a lens on what it means to have loss and regret and grief,” says Yockey, whose creative vision can best be summed up in five words: “The Hardy Boys on acid.”

Following an international search, the producers settled on Rexstrew, a recent graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art who is making his onscreen debut, and Revri, best known for his work in Disney Channel’s The Lodge and Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga. Although they both nailed their individual auditions — Revri embodied the qualities of a golden retriever in human (or ghost?) form, while Rexstrew, who wore a schoolboy coat and tie to each of his auditions, captured Edwin’s repressed, buttoned-up nature — Yockey says the real pièce de résistance was their Zoom chemistry read.

“If [they say] it was love at first sight for them, I believe that because they were instantly attached at the hip, but they also played off of each other really well,” Yockey recalls. “George does such an incredible job of putting up a wall as Edwin. Some of the people that were auditioning against him didn’t respond to that very well, whereas Jayden leaned into it and was like, ‘Oh, you’re going to be difficult to connect with? Okay, I’m going to try 400%.’”

Rexstrew and Revri met in person for the first time at Heathrow Airport in London, on the way to Vancouver to shoot the pilot in November 2021. Apart from giving each other a quick spiel about their life story, Rexstrew and Revri developed an implicit understanding of the care and commitment that would be required for them to lead the biggest project of their careers. “They were really excited about all the crazy stuff that we do on the show, and they were more than happy to get dirty,” says Beth Schwartz, who serves as co-showrunner with Yockey.

Although they both became well-versed in the comics and would return to them if they ever needed inspiration, Rexstrew and Revri say they leaned heavily on Yockey to develop a fresh take on the detectives. Once DBD was officially ordered to series in April 2022 and restarted production that November, the writers were able to incorporate parts of the actors into the characters.

For instance, this iteration of Charles, like Revri, is half-Indian. Further, Rexstrew, who made his own little book for each episode, worked with the creative team to find a Victorian-era hairstyle and fought for a family sigil to be printed on the front of Edwin’s notebook. His own behavioral ticks even began to manifest in his performance.

“George, in particular, loves to attach physical gestures to a lot of the choices that he makes as an actor. I would say 90% of them are perfect, and the 10% that aren’t are a lot of fun to watch on set,” Yockey says. “He would be like, ‘Well, do you want me to stop doing that?’ And we would be like, ‘Absolutely not, because you’re unlocking all of this great stuff.’”

Rexstrew and Revri both rose to the occasion, delivering a beautifully vulnerable depiction of male friendship that has seldom been represented on television. In 1916, Edwin was killed and sent to Hell** **in a ritual sacrifice by clueless classmates. For over 70 years, he endured his own special kind of torture in Hell: being chased and mauled by a terrifyingly gigantic spider made out of baby-doll heads, only to be “reborn” and forced to undergo the same ordeal over and over again. But in 1989, Edwin escapes from Hell and finds a hypothermic and badly injured Charles hiding from bullies in the attic of his former school. Knowing that Charles is about to die, Edwin decides to lend an ear and humor his questions about ghost powers.

“Unlike Edwin who overthinks everything, Charles under-thinks things and really operates from his gut,” Yockey explains of the penultimate episode, which sheds light on the origins of their relationship. “Charles’ gut is: ‘I don’t want to go to the afterlife. I want to stay here longer. Why don’t I stay with you?’ We put [those words] in Edwin’s mouth. He’s like, ‘That’s not how you make decisions.’ But that’s what Charles does. … They’re complementary characters in a really beautiful way.”

What begins as a kind of forced companionship gradually blossoms into an unlikely friendship between two kindred spirits who are seeking a genuine connection. “This isn’t something that’s featured in the show, but they’re both teenagers, they have mutual interests, and, as per the comics, they would go to the cinema and watch detective films,” Rexstrew says. “As well as being the yin to his yang, Charles is the office Labrador and brings out the playful facets to Edwin’s character.”

“I love the scene of us doing the boxing in the pilot so much because that’s just the perfect example,” Revri chimes in. “Edwin wouldn’t do that for anyone [else]; there’s only one person that can make him that way. When you get to that point of seeing where their origin came from, you realize that they’re two teenage boys who have been wronged by other teenage boys. That common ground that they find just naturally attracts them together from the start.”

For his part, Revri thinks Charles has always been drawn to Edwin’s “gentle, comforting” nature. “Edwin definitely keeps Charles in check,” he says. “As a person who’s quite like Charles, I think having that person in your life that basically isn’t afraid to tell you to sort yourself out can go a long way.”

But how does the actors’ real-life relationship compare to their onscreen dynamic? The question briefly stumps Rexstrew and Revri, who spend much of our conversation gently ribbing each other. On more than one occasion, the co-stars, who were both born in London and each don an earring on their left ear, punctuate their thoughtful answers with playful quips about how they will never be able to get rid of each other.

Though he believes that he and Rexstrew have a “somewhat different” relationship to their fictional counterparts, Revri admits that it can be difficult, at times, to tease the two close friendships apart. “It’s not that it merges into one,” Revri says, “but when you’ve been in that process with somebody and you spend so much time off-screen and onscreen, we just found this perfect balance of being able to switch in and out of Jayden and George and Charles and Edwin.”

In the end, the costars settle on an everyday example that presumably came from six months of living and working together in Vancouver: If they were to go shopping together in real life, Rexstrew is the kind of person who would want to make a list ahead of time, while Revri would act more on instinct and impulse.

“Edwin and Charles, having spent 30 years exclusively in one another’s company at this point, have almost a telepathy in terms of communicating, and Jayden and I definitely share that,” Rexstrew adds, with Revri nodding animatedly in agreement. “In the way that Charles always is there to support Edwin, Jayden has been the exact same for me.”

That kind of vulnerability remained vital when approaching Edwin and Charles’ parallel but inextricably intertwined arcs. For as close as they have been, Edwin has never spoken to Charles about his time in Hell, while Charles’ cheerful, optimistic nature belies the scars of the abuse he endured from his father. But it’s the introduction of Crystal — and the act of being transplanted from their native London to Port Townsend — that upsets the apple cart.

“I think those boys could have gone on for decades more just by themselves being friends, and that would’ve been enough,” Yockey posits. “But it’s the fear of losing Charles and his affection that pushes Edwin to realize that he doesn’t understand these new impulses and feelings that he’s having.”

“Edwin’s fundamental arc, to me, was always a discovery of love. It always felt like something more profound than just a sexual awakening. It’s a real, sensitive, and in my opinion uniquely represented story of male and male love,” Rexstrew says. “I think learning how to love is a universal experience that we go through as teenagers.”

So much of the first season is about Edwin being forced to confront his romantic feelings for Charles with the help of the people around him. Niko is “the architect of love, and it’s her innocent curiosity which leads to this initial softening for Edwin. [Lukas Gage’s] Cat King perhaps leads to a more visceral awakening when it comes to the connection, whereas [Joshua Robert Colley’s] Monty perhaps introduces Edwin to the notion of flirting,” Rexstrew adds. “All of these other characters play a really pivotal role in providing the scaffolding for Edwin and his emotional journey, which finally reaches its climax in, Oh crap, I have deep feelings for my best friend in the whole world.”

That long-awaited epiphany comes at the end of episode 5, when Edwin reassures Charles that he is the best person he knows and that he is nothing like the two douchey, high-school jocks whose case they just solved. When Charles hugs him, Edwin breathes a visceral sigh of relief.

“I think the moment of realization was originally after the hug, but [director Amanda Tapping and I] thought if it was during the hug, then there’s something more interesting about it being a private moment and seeing how he has to grapple with that and work through it,” Rexstrew reveals. “Edwin is a master when it comes to articulation. But when it comes to articulating his emotions and feeling them, he’s not so much of an expert.”

Edwin comes out to Charles at the end of episode 6, explaining that Monty “unearthed” some new feelings within him. But before they can discuss things any further, Edwin and Charles are interrupted — first by the Night Nurse (Ruth Connell), who is hellbent on stopping them from evading the afterlife, and then the infamous baby-doll spider, which drags Edwin back to Hell. Using nothing more than Edwin’s meticulously crafted notebook, Charles takes it upon himself to bring his best mate back from the underworld, even if it means risking his own existence.

“When [Charles] finds him in the dollhouse, and [Edwin] says, ‘You have to be quiet,’ and [Charles] sees the pile of [Edwin’s old, mangled] bodies, I wanted to show the audience that this is the first time he’s really realizing what Edwin went through for 70 years,” Revri explains of that emotional reunion in episode 7. “As his best friend, you’re going to feel the biggest amount of sympathy — and it’s also brutal. I think there’s a lot of those moments in our show where it’s unspoken moments and just looks and interactions physically between each other that really speak sometimes louder than the words that we actually say.”

On their way out of the never-ending staircase, Edwin decides to confess his love to Charles, in a (hopefully more positive) riff on Orpheus and Eurydice, who may have the most tragic love story in Greek mythology. “This giant baby-doll spider could emerge from the shadows at any point and take him away again and disconnect him from Charles forever, so I think for Edwin, it’s a moment of now or never,” Rexstrew explains of his character’s mindset leading up to that confession, which he and Revri discussed at length. Having just reconciled with his school bully-slash-crush Simon in Hell, Edwin wants to make his feelings known, even if Charles may not feel the same way. “That moment with Simon is such an important moment of connection within the show, and I think it provides this feeling of clarity for Edwin.”

Despite not necessarily feeling exactly the same way, Charles reassures Edwin that he is the most important person in his (after)life — and that their soul bond will never be broken. Charles “wants to make things right; he wants to make people feel good. That all comes from a genuine place of not just wanting to make up for the childhood he didn’t have, but also he’s just a kind person,” Yockey says. “So his response to Edwin, we knew, was going to come from comfort and kindness.”

Although Edwin’s love for Charles may be unrequited for now, Rexstrew and Revri know that it will only be a matter of time until fans start shipping their characters together — and they are waiting with bated breath for the edits and theories that will be born out of the wealth of material in the first season. “‘Chedwin’ probably will be the [ship name] that everyone will create for us, [but] we’ll leave it to the fans,” Revri says with a smile.

For what it’s worth, the actors are both game for a “Chedwin” romantic arc, should the writers ever decide to go down that route. “Listen, if we get a season 2, I’m game to all ideas,” Rexstrew says cheekily.

Related: Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives: Trailer, Release Date, Cast, and Everything You Need to Know

Going forward, Edwin and Charles’ dynamic could be even more fun to explore, says Yockey, who insists that the writers have a “clear understanding” of the characters and would never intentionally try to “gay-bait” the fans. The question is: “Once you’ve confessed your feelings to someone who doesn’t necessarily feel the same but is still in your life and cares about you, what then?”

The season finale brings the story full circle, with Edwin and Charles sitting in their London office. After surviving the wrath of evil, immortal Port Townsend witch Esther (Jennifer Lyon) but tragically losing Niko in the process, Edwin and Charles officially welcome Crystal to the Dead Boy Detective Agency. But they are also tasked with adding the Night Nurse — who looks like she would very much like to be anywhere else — to their roster as a condition of them staying together and solving mysteries indefinitely.

For their part, Rexstrew and Revri would both like to see Edwin and Charles solve more cases in London. But by virtue of their interactions with the modern world, the characters have also been fundamentally changed for the better. “When it comes to Edwin and Charles’ dynamic, I think Edwin is less confused by the nature of his love for Charles, and they’re actually both growing in emotional intelligence together,” Rexstrew says. “Bless those two teenage boys!”

Fans also shouldn’t be surprised if the Dead Boy Detectives pop up on another show in the near future. “The great thing about the show being on Netflix, ultimately, is that we’re walking arm-in-arm with The Sandman as it unrolls its next season,” Yockey says. “We’ve had contact with Neil and [showrunner] Allan [Heinberg] about how we can move forward continuing this shared world. It’s not just the Dead Boys comics that we can open it up to moving forward.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

Want more great Culture stories from Teen Vogue? Check these out:

• A New Generation of Pretty Little Liars Takes on the Horrors of Being a Teenage Girl

• Who Is Rihanna, Really?

• Jennette McCurdy Is Finally Able to Grieve

• Underneath Chappell Roan’s Hannah Montana Wig? A Pop Star for the Ages

• Donald Glover’s Swarm Is Another Piece of Fandom Media That Dehumanizes Black Women

• On Velma, Mindy Kaling, and Whether Brown Girls Can Ever Like Ourselves on TV

• The Next Generation of Female Rap Lives on TikTok

• Gaten Matarazzo Talks Spoilers, Dustin Henderson, and Growing Up on Stranger Things

• How K-pop Stars Are Leading Mental Health Conversations for AAPI People and Beyond

• Meet the Collective of Philly TikTokers Making You Shake Your Hips

• The Midnight Club Star Ruth Codd Isn’t Defined By Her Disability