Wait, Why Does ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Have an Entire Shelf of Clue Games?

Shortly after escaping a run-amuck spirit (thanks, mirror travel!) and sending it to the afterlife in Episode 1, the titular “Dead Boy Detectives” Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) provide an unexpectedly telling glimpse into the world of the show we’re about to delve into over seven more episodes.

In their atmospheric, cluttered London office, where they hold client meetings about casual cases, such as a dead child’s living friend who seems to be possessed by a demon, Charles steps into the closet. And eagle-eyed viewers will spot an entire shelf devoted to multiple editions of the Clue board game.

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The dead boys are in the details, so IndieWire had to ask co-showrunners Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz what was behind that level of minutiae.

“In the script, it said, ‘There are board games and several editions of Clue,'” Yockey told IndieWire. “And then, honestly, the art department and set decoration department on the show…. I mean, you’ve seen it. Not only do they knock it out of the park in terms of design and execution, but they just go above and beyond, so everything has that special touch to it. And they found every international version of Clue and put it in that closet! The first time I saw it, I was like, ‘Is this too much?’ And then I was like, ‘It’s not, it’s not, let’s go.'”

That same level of detail extends across the spookily fantastic first season of “Dead Boy Detectives,” from Jenn Lyon’s props as immortal witch Esther to Edwin’s carefully correct Edwardian teen’s clothes. Although in that instance, period-accurate details almost went too far.

“Kelli [Dunsmore], who is our amazing costume designer, she doesn’t play around,” Yockey said. “She does research. So all the pins on Charles’ jacket mean different things. Every aspect of Edwin’s costume is researched down to the nth degree of what school boys in 1916 would have been wearing, complete with this wall of pictures as references. I think she got mad at me because she wanted to give him a cape, and I was like, ‘The cape just feels a little too Sherlock Holmes.’ But that was the great thing, is that everybody working on the show, all the different production departments just went above and beyond and delivered on such a high level.”

“And because it’s such an, we hope, original show…. I think it just gave everyone that freedom of creativity to just go wild,” Schwartz told IndieWire. “I know we did that in the writer’s room. And so I think they just followed suit.”

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