11-03-2025
'Supernatural' alum Ruth Connell is still 'in denial' about 'Dead Boy Detectives' cancellation on Netflix
Supernatural alum Ruth Connell was part of one of the most infamous show cancellations, Dead Boy Detectives, the Netflix series axed after just one season. Playing the Night Nurse, starring alongside George Rexstrew as Edwin Payne, Jayden Revri as Charles Rowland, and who can forget Lukas Gage as the Cat King, Connell still isn't over the show's untimely cancellation.
"I thought she was such a terrific character. I thought it was an important show for a lightly alternative audience, for younger people, that need representation. Very mindfully made, very thoughtfully made by the right people whose hearts were in the right place," Connell told Yahoo Canada. "We all cared about it. It wasn't just a job. We all were really invested."
"I'm personally still not over it and it's one of the most successful shows that's been cancelled. It's an algorithm that probably decides, at this point. We had fans pay for billboards to go up outside Netflix to say, 'Bring back Dead Boy Detectives.' And especially for my character, I knew she had a lot more to do in Season 2, so I was particularly devastated. ... I'm in denial. I don't know if there's some other universe where it's being made and happening."
While Dead Boy Detectives is among the projects stalled or cancelled based on Neil Gaiman's work, the novelist accused of sexual assault by multiple women, it has not been confirmed that the allegations are related to the cancellation. The series was developed by Steve Yockey, who served as co-showrunner with Beth Schwartz, who worked alongside Greg Berlanti, Jeremy Carver, and Sarah Schechter as executive producers.
But Connell still has a lot to celebrate, playing one of the most beloved Supernatural characters, Rowena MacLeod, and she's now heading to Toronto Comicon (March 14-16) to meet fans and participate in a panel for the show, alongside costars Jared Padalecki, Mark Sheppard, Alexander Calvert and Jim Beaver.
"I come from a theatre background and it's the closest thing to live performance that I'm getting right now," Connell said. "I really enjoy the panels a lot, ... and you get that immediate feedback from the audience."
"Five years after the show's ended the audience is packed, and still to this day there will always be somebody that comes up with a new, original question. ... We're in this kind of travelling circus together."
With much of Supernatural being filmed in Vancouver, Connell loved the experience filming in Canada and enjoys going back to B.C., and Toronto as well, for fan events. And meeting up with Toronto-based Lisa Berry, who played Billie on Supernatural.
"I used to go in a day or two early, now I have a baby, I'm a bit more limited with the time that I have, but it's home [away] from home, in a way," Connell said. "And there's the British element to Canada too. ... It's always good in the shops you can get British biscuits."
What's particularly impressive is that Supernatural became one of the few shows that has developed a lasting level of fandom, a rare occurrence.
"As actors, one of the things that you're looking for is community. You want to be part of something bigger than yourself," Connell said. "It is rare. And I know there's a Marvel Universe and a DC universe, but this is one little show that could."
"I think that's partly what makes it work, in a way. ... You feel like you've discovered it for yourself, and it's yours, and you're part of the chosen family, an extended family."
While Connell highlighted that Supernatural is a show that's watched by families and people of different generations, fans have a special connection to Rowena, a female character with a unique story and wit. She was far different than the "witch" characters we had seen on screen in the past.
"We had Harry Potter, but there was this kind of rise, I would say, the divine feminine happened. Witches became so much more popular just as Rowena was coming through," Connell said. "It's interesting the timing, and I was happy to be part of that."
"And I think I had a little bit of a stigma about it, about playing a witch. ... Meryl Streep famously said this, when she got over 40 that's kind of all she was offered. But that's not what really happened. It was more about this woman being very good at what she did. She was a career woman and this was her art form, and she was very good at it. And women have been good at things for centuries, and they're not not defined by it, but it's a big part of who they are. And I think that to me, was the flesh of it. That was the bit that was important. I think people relate to that where, here's this woman who's really a boss at what she does."
In terms of future projects, Connell has something personal up her sleeve, hoping to create a project based on her grandmother's story, Ruby Connell, the only female member of the Scottish Football Association, developing the idea with Lisa Berry.
"I really would love to, because I'd like to tell her story. She's a really interesting person, and not just because she's my grandma, she really was a character," Connell stressed. "They don't make them like that anymore, ... a woman in a man's world, but never felt hard done because of it. Just held her own, somehow. Was an equal, somehow."
"It tells the story of Scotland, in that area of Scotland which we don't really see very much. We see Glasgow and Edinburgh, but we don't really see central Scotland, where she grew up and where she was from. ... It's just been very interesting for me and my family history. ... I think there's a story there to be told."
