Clyde Phillips On How The Taylor Sheridan-Verse Inspired ‘Dexter’ Franchise Expansion
SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin premiere episode.
Everyone’s favorite serial killer Dexter Morgan is back in the premiere of Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin, the franchise’s first prequel currently available to stream via Paramount+ with Showtime.
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From creator Clyde Phillips, showrunner on the first four seasons of the OG series Dexter, Original Sin is set in 1991 Miami. It follows a young Dexter (Patrick Gibson), as he transitions from student to avenging serial killer. When his bloodthirsty urges can no longer be ignored, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness.
With the guidance of his father, Harry (Christian Slater), he adopts a Code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.
Phillips spoke to Deadline at a junket and the show’s premiere in New York City this week where he revealed what inspired him to travel back in time and expand the universe.
“After we wrote [Dexter: New Blood], Chris McCarthy from Paramount and MTV Entertainment came in and said, ‘You know, I’m a Yellowstone guy. I do prequels not sequels, like 1883 and 1923.’ As it turns out, I had seen Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923; I just love those shows,” shared Phillips.
“So Chris asked if I could come up with a prequel in the next 10 days. I sat with a couple of writers and we found ourselves really excited about the opportunity to go back to the roots and find how Dexter is fated to be who he is,” he added.
Phillips notes that after showing Showtime’s Gary Levine and McCarthy their work, the latter said, “Go forward, phenomenal. Let’s do it.”
To further connect to the Taylor Sheridan-verse, Phillps revealed they used Yellowstone‘s casting directors, John Papsidera and Kim Winther’s company to cast Original Sin.
Michael C. Hall, who famously played adult Dexter in the mothership series, committed to the prequel as an executive producer and the show’s narrator, it was announced at SDCC earlier this year. He also makes a brief appearance in the premiere episode of Original Sin showing the connection between it and New Blood.
“I don’t see how we could’ve done this without Michael’s participation,” Phillips shared. “Michael is the executive producer of this show and he brings us home. It makes the audience come back. When you hear Michael’s voice, you lean forward. And I want the audience to be leaning forward throughout the whole show.”
He continued, “Michael C. Hall’s voice also has humor and resonance. You get the sense that Patrick Gibson is fated to become Dexter, there’s no escaping it. Because we’re hearing Michael’s voice and watching Patrick, if you know about the OG show, you know that Dexter survives and that’s important. It gives us more chances at more storytelling.”
The Original Sin premiere “And in the Beginning…,” picks up moments after the events of New Blood after Dexter has been shot by his now adult son Harrison (Jack Alcott). While the finale led viewers to believe Dexter had died, it was never confirmed. This tactic was certainly used to see whether there was an appetite for more stories and there absolutely was. The limited series was crowned Showtime’s most-watched series in history, averaging over 8 million weekly viewers across all the premium cabler’s platforms.
Back to the premiere of Original Sin, Dexter’s body is found after having been shot and rushed in a police car to the local hospital in the small fictional town of Iron Lake, New York where he had been living as a local wilderness store clerk, Jim Lindsay. As an aside, the surname of Lindsay is a nod to the author Jeff Lindsay who wrote the series of novels that inspired the mothership series which ran for 8 seasons from 2006 to 2013.
Present day Dexter ends up in the emergency room where he is in critical condition with his survival looking bleaker by the minute. Suddenly, things take a turn for the better as doctors revive the serial killer’s heartbeat.
“It really is like they say, your life flashes before your eyes…,” says Dexter as the scene pivots to the moment of his birth.
“To a great extent, that’s what we have accomplished and what we set out to do,” said Phillips of the unique approach of tying the shows together. “One hundred years ago, I wanted to end [Dexter] with him on the execution table with his life flashing before his eyes but that never happened. In an odd way, we got to make it happen anyway.”
While it might be possible to begin your Dexter franchise journey with Original Sin, it would be best to binge Dexter and then New Blood, in that order. After Original Sin is over, it will make way for the new series, Resurrection, which will go into production in early 2025. To be clear, Resurrection is set in the present day and will star Hall with narration by Gibson.
Original Sin also stars Reno Wilson, Christina Milian, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Molly Brown, Alex Shimizu and James Martinez.
For fans of the original series, there are plenty of Easter eggs scattered throughout Season 1. By going back in time, the writers are able to resolve theories once and for all like Dexter’s true parentage, which will be tackled in a later episode.
“It was liberating; there’s so much secrecy on a serial killer show,” he said with a smile when asked how he felt about resolving the theories. “For people who like Easter eggs, this is an Easter egg hunt. In the writers room, we have a blast with this. There’s a scene where—wait, I can’t give that one away. People from the past, their presence is felt, known, or secretly seen in this show. And since we take place in two time periods, we can do flashbacks within our own show. We’re in 1991 but flashback to 1973 and see Harry and Laura Moser get together, learn about their affair and meet Baby Dexter. You’ll learn what’s become folklore; learn the lore of the show which is that Dexter is indeed fated. His future is set and there’s nothing he can do about it,” Phillips concluded.
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