Original Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips (pictured inset, left) and fellow Dexter vet Scott Reynolds (pictured inset, right) serve as co-creators and executive producers on the Trinity Killer spinoff prequel. They held a development room for the project earlier this spring. As scripts were being written, there were erroneous reports in the media that the project was not moving forward, which was never the case, the sources said.
Phillips shared an update on the Trinity Killer project while promoting Dexter: Original Sin in New York City earlier this month.
“We wrote the entire Trinity Killer series. At the moment, it is on the back burner,” he said in the video, which you can watch below. “John Lithgow has agreed to be the voice of his younger self the way Michael Hall is doing for [Original Sin]. There’s that and we’re doing another show with Michael C. Hall, [Resurrection]… We were writing that while shooting Original Sin, so that’s fairly busy. We begin shooting [Resurrection] in January and it will air in June 2025.”
Showtime and Phillips have focused on Dexter: Original Sin, which premiered December 13, with Resurrection, the sequel to the highly acclaimed limited series Dexter: New Blood, also as the top priority.
Dexter: Resurrection , which will be narrated by Patrick Gibson, who plays the young Dexter in Original Sin , was soft-launched in the premiere episode of Original Sin , in which it was revealed that Dexter survived the shooting that was meant to kill him for good by his son Harrison (Jack Alcott) at Dexter's request.
Network and studio executives are also likely waiting to see how Dexter: Original Sin does to see if there's any appetite for further expansion of the Dexter universe before committing to Trinity Killer .
So far, things are looking promising, with Dexter: Original Sin drawing 2.1 million viewers in its first three days, according to Paramount Global . The company also says it's Showtime's most-streamed premiere ever, though it didn't specify how much of that audience came from streaming.
While Dexter was based on the books by Jeff Lindsay, Phillips created the character of Arthur Mitchell aka the Trinity Killer in the television series, who first appeared in season four of the Showtime hit. Trinity is considered the most notorious serial killer Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has ever killed. He inflicted the most suffering on Dexter of all his murders by killing Dexter's wife Rita (Julie Benz), who Dexter found lifeless in their bathtub, in the season four finale. Dexter's life was never the same.
Part of Arthur's backstory, which would have been explored in the potential prequel, was revealed in Dexter. As a child, he accidentally caused the death of his sister Vera, who was startled when her brother watched her shower and fell through the glass door. The incident, for which Arthur's parents blamed him, devastated the family. His mother committed suicide a few years later, and his father became an alcoholic who severely beat Arthur. In all of his killings, Trinity was inspired in some way by his early life. He capped his killing spree by murdering two women in a bathtub, including Rita, his last kill while Dexter was hunting him.
Much like Dexter: Original Sin did for Dexter, a Trinity Killer prequel series could humanize him and explain how he got to the point of no return, not as an excuse but more as a dramatic look at a psychological profile of why killers kill.
Lithgow returned as the Trinity Killer in Dexter: New Blood, albeit in a small role, leaving fans hungry for more. Could he return in Dexter: Resurrection and serve as a precursor to this prequel series, just as New Blood led to Original Sin?
Dexter: Original Sin is now available on Streamz and from Thursday 30 January on SkyShowtime.
