‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Yuyu Kitamura Has So Many Questions About the Finale

[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Dead Boy Detectives.]

The Big Picture

• ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ co-stars Kassius Nelson and Yuyu Kitamura share their audition experiences, favorite moments, and questions for a potential Season 2.
• Crystal Palace’s psychic abilities help Edwin and Charles and their Dead Boy Detective Agency, deepening characters and plot development.
• Niko’s paranormal affliction allows her to see ghosts, strengthening the team’s investigation skills.

From co-showrunners Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) and Beth Schwartz (Arrow) and set within The Sandman universe, Netflix’s eight-episode comic book series Dead Boy Detectives follows Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), ghosts who became best friends in death and have teamed up to solve mysteries that will help ghosts in limbo to be on their way. While avoiding Hell and Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and getting some help from clairvoyant Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson) and new friend Niko Sasaki (Yuyu Kitamura), they must overcome their own metaphorical and actual demons in order for this duo-turned-foursome to continue to do good.

Although not a ghost, Crystal’s psychic abilities help the Dead Boy Detective Agency and, more specifically, Edwin and Charles, who she feels indebted to after they save her from demonic possession. Niko is able to see ghosts on account of being afflicted with supernatural parasites, so in bonding with the other three, she can use her investigation skills to help them solve cases.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Nelson and Kitamura talked about how this a show with something for everyone, what their audition experiences were like, playing someone like Crystal who’s missing the memories of who she is thanks to a demon, Niko’s ability to march to the beat of her own drum, their favorite moments together, the Crystal and Charles dynamic, and the questions they would like to see answered in Season 2.

‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Has Something For Everyone With Its Blend of Genres

Collider: I love everything about this show. I love the characters, their interactions, and all their feelings, and I need Season 2 now. With all the layers to this, everything going on, and the mix of genres, what was the thing that you connected to most? Was it something about the type of show that it is, or was it something specific about your character?

YUYU KITAMURA: I love that there’s something truly for everyone. Reading it, it’s such a genre-bending show. It is rooted in humanity, but the stakes are high. We are dealing with life, death, and the afterlife. The universe is endless. The characters we have are so rich. It really feels like a playground that we get to work in.

KASSIUS NELSON: And the show can go anywhere. The world of the show is so vast and so big. It can go in any direction, which I think is really exciting.

What was your audition process like for this? Were these roles that you had to fight for? How did that whole process go?

NELSON: I did a self-tape, and I just had a small brief about the character and the scenes that I was auditioning with, and that was it. I didn’t know where the character was going or what was happening in the first episode, let alone the rest of the season. And then, I did one more recall and I think I found out a week or so later that I’d gotten the role. It felt like a really quick process and very different to the usual.

KITAMURA: I was in Hong Kong at the time, and all of my actor friends that I usually have read with me weren’t available because I was in Hong Kong and they’re all based in the U.S. So, my dad read for the tape with me and he gave me some notes and directions. I was like, “Oh, my God, this is so uncomfortable. But then, a week or so later, I had a producer call back and, within the month, from start to finish, I heard that I got the part. It felt really surreal.

What do you remember about meeting each other for the first time? When did the two of you meet? When did you all meet, as a foursome?

NELSON: I don’t even remember the first time we met off set.

KITAMURA: I know I met George first. He came back from Christmas break, and I had arrived a little bit earlier, so I had an encounter with Edwin, which is almost very fitting for Niko.

NELSON: Our first scene together was at the doorway and [Yuyu] had waited ages to say this one line. You really made it your own, for sure.

KITAMURA: I really wanted to milk that one line.

NELSON: And then, from that point onwards, we were in so many scenes together that it just evolved naturally from there.

Kassius, when we meet Crystal, she doesn’t know who she is because she’s had her memories taken away by a demon. How does that shape her, during the season? At the same time that she doesn’t know who she is, she’s also continuing to become stronger because she keeps fighting to keep him out of her. What was that like to find?

NELSON: Yeah, we meet Crystal at a really weird time and she’s trying to figure out who she is. As the season progresses, we’re watching her come to terms with old parts of herself or the shadow versions of herself, the bits that are a bit uncomfortable to sit with. And then, we see her try to figure out where she wants to fit in the world of who she is now. And the relationship with David, the demon, is an interesting one because it’s a unique take, really, on an abusive relationship and how that type of relationship can haunt someone long after it’s finished. It’s impacted everything – the way that she trusts people, if she even does, how she feels about herself, and the internal shame that she feels for feeling responsible for allowing it to happen, even though that’s not really true. Once I looked at those elements, I could justify a lot of her actions and the way that she reacts to things. Sometimes she’s quite hot-headed or heated, and when you understand it’s coming from that place, it makes sense. Ultimately, she’s just trying to protect herself.

Yuyu, Niko seems like the kind of character who really marches to the beat of her own drum. She just is who she is. Was that very clearly laid out on the page for you? Did you just get an immediate sense of who she is and how quirky she can be?

KITAMURA: I love the way you put that, marching to the beat of her own drum. That really is who Niko is. On the page, I had so much joy reading who she was and who she develops into. The wonderful thing about her quirkiness, or her sense of optimism and positivity, is how she really feels and understands her authenticity to herself. She doesn’t need to mask her emotions. She doesn’t need to chase something that she’s yearning for, other than the happiness and the friendships that she is creating with these people. For a character like that to exist in a world that can be so dark and can really be haunting at times, her presence and her ability to lift others up is just a light.

Jenny the Butcher Is the Coolest ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Character

One of the unexpectedly favorite aspects for me this season was Jenny and the butcher shop and all the crazy things that happen there. How much fun was it to continue to leave that character into your characters’ lives and see them form this crazy friendship?

NELSON: I love Bree [Cuoco], who plays Jenny Green, the butcher shop owner, so much. Jenny is the coolest character I think I’ve ever seen.

KITAMURA: And so is Bree.

NELSON: I wanna be that cool. Bree is so cool. It was so great to watch Bree. She’s so natural and just fantastic. And any scene that we were in with her was great because we get on so well that it meant we could push the boundaries of the scenes and really play up the annoyance that we are in Jenny’s life. It was great.

KITAMURA: It’s also nice to see that these two young women, who don’t have paternal figures at this moment in time and who look to Jenny for guidance, really find support in her cold warmth. It really feels like women coming together to support one another, and that’s always a fun dynamic to see on screen.

NELSON: And she has the best one-liners in the show. The one-liners that she has are so good. She says what the audience is thinking most of the time.

What is your favorite scene between your characters? Do you have a favorite moment that you guys share together?

KITAMURA: I loved that moment in episode four when they both had such a heavy day by the lighthouse, and then they go back home. It’s not a lot of dialogue, but in that moment, you know that there’s true friendship there. These two young women care about each other, but they also rely on one another. They’re both different, but they both have their own space to exist.

NELSON: I really like that because that’s the moment where you do see a shift. You really see Crystal opening up and there’s a real genuineness between them. I was gonna say later on, when Crystal and Niko team up to help because you see, on paper, that they shouldn’t really work, but they do.

KITAMURA: They’re the blind leading the blind.

NELSON: Yeah, but it manages to work.

How do you guys feel about the way the season ends? It feels like these characters are in very different places at the end of the season and they’ve have had quite a journey. What was it like to read that finale script and learn about where it would leave everyone?

KITAMURA: It kept getting wilder and wilder. It really felt like the anticipation built to that season finale. It felt like a payoff to finally watch this group of misfits come together and save one another from this dire situation that they found themselves in. It was so fun to film, but it was such an intense period that we were filming.

NELSON: I remember feeling a lot of pressure from myself, just because the whole series was working up to that moment and I really wanted to honor that. I definitely felt pressure, but it was exciting.

What Questions Does the ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Cast Want Answered In A Possible Season 2?

What are the biggest questions you guys have? If there’s another season and you get to do more episodes, what are the things that you want to know?

NELSON: I have so many questions. I’m always asking Steve. There’s so much I wanna know. I wanna know more about their past lives. With Edwin, I wanna know why he is the way he is and what his upbringing was like. I wanna know what other creatures exist in this world and how deep it goes. I wanna go inside Charles’ backpack. I wanna know what’s inside there. There’s so much more I wanna know.

KITAMURA: I wanna know if we all get our own office. I wanna know where I am at the end of the season. That’s my big question. But also, would they move to London? Does Crystal go back and hang out with her family?

NELSON: Does she just leave?

Yuyu, what was your reaction to that final scene with Niko in the igloo with the sprites?

KITAMURA: It’s always nice to know that I’m not dead and I get to come back. That was my first thought. But also, how did these sprites come with me? What does that stone mean? The biggest payoff for my character journey was the fact that she’s been working so hard to find her chosen family and, at the end of the season, she gives her own life up for these people that she just met. You really understand how deep their connection is. But yeah, my question is, where the hell is she and why is it so cold? Where is this place? These are all questions that I think we’ll uncover. Fingers crossed for a Season 2.

Kassius, what did you most enjoy about the relationship between Charles and Crystal?

NELSON: I think they really get each other. They both put up a defense mechanism, in different ways. Charles has a lot of charisma, and he’s very optimistic and very charming, which I think is covering something else that Crystal sees straight through. With her, he sees through this tough exterior that she puts up. They’re like a window and can see through to each other. I think that helps them be able to connect and find a mutual unspoken understanding. I feel like that’s the basis of why they get along so well.

But should she really go from a demon to a ghost?

NELSON: Right?! She needs Niko to be cupid.

KITAMURA: Niko ships them.

NELSON: Niko definitely wants them to hook up.

KITAMURA: She’s stirring the pot.

Dead Boy Detectives is available to stream on Netflix. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Netflix