‘Dexter: Original Sin’ Creator Reveals the Real Reason He Wanted to Do This Prequel

When it comes to Dexter Morgan, fans got to learn a lot about what makes him tick and why throughout Dexter‘s eight-season run and the first spinoff New Blood. The twisty drama was peppered with flashbacks that showed the serial killer’s origin story, from the moment he witnessed his mother’s brutal murder to his own first kill and beyond. 

So it’s natural that some fans may wonder what Dexter: Original Sin, a prequel taking place 15 years before the events of the original series, has to offer. And it’s a question that Original Sin creator and original series showrunner Clyde Phillips is happy to answer.

“It was basically the inevitability of it — how he is fated to become who he is,” Phillips told TV Insider of the arc of the new series. “But also we got the chance to show his inexperience, his evolution…. We meet him in college. He’s never kissed a girl. He doesn’t have any friends. He doesn’t know how to hug his own sister.”

By contrast, the original series introduced audiences to a fully experienced murderer first. “When we met the original Dexter, Michael C. Hall, he was 35 years old and completely developed as a serial killer, and we now have the unique opportunity — I don’t know what show gets to do this — to show how this all began and to show him making mistakes and his social awkwardness and his inability to talk to his own family, and the eventual urge taking over that fate because of his childhood, of what happened to when he was two years old.”

Related

'Dexter: Original Sin' Stars Reveal How 'Dexter' OGs Helped Them Prepare

While there will be some familiar ground tread by the new series, there’s a new focus on the relationship between Harry (portrayed by Christian Slater here) and Dexter (Patrick Gibson) that audiences didn’t get to see before — particularly because it follows Harry far beyond Dexter’s own memories of his adoptive father.

“We got to more deeply explore that and explore the father-son relationship,” Phillips said, noting the heart of the show is “a father-son story as well as a family story as well as a serial killer story as well as a cop show.”