[This story contains major spoilers from the season premiere of Dexter: Original Sin.]
Dexter: Original Sin flashes back to a young Dexter Morgan to pass the torch from Michael C. Hall’s grizzled, fugitive serial killer in present-day to 1991’s wide-eyed forensics Miami Metro intern played by Patrick Gibson.
Gibson seamlessly embodies the antihero viewers came to intimately know across eight seasons of the hit Showtime series that concluded in 2013, followed by a bonus year with the 2021 limited series New Blood. Now, Hall is an executive producer on Original Sin, where he continues to voice Dexter’s inner monologue throughout the 10-episode season. With the premiere that released on Friday, the Dexter franchise quite literally roared back to life by resurrecting Dexter (played in an onscreen appearance by Hall). That surprise revelation succeeds in undoing the New Blood ending, where creator Clyde Phillips had left Dexter bleeding in the snow and confirmed in interviews that Dexter was, in fact, dead.
With Dexter now again among the living in Original Sin (which sets up the next series in the Dexter canon, Resurrection, coming summer 2025 and starring Hall), flipping back to Gibson’s take on the character could raise the stakes even higher.
But Gibson and Hall’s connection was apparent from the very beginning, which prompted Hall to give the 29-year-old Ireland-born actor his blessing.
“I did the table read and got to meet Michael for the first time, and that was the first time we went back to back with me saying a line and him doing the voiceover, and that was probably the most daunting moment of this whole process,” Gibson tells The Hollywood Reporter of his collaborative work with Hall. “After that, he emailed me and we discussed the role. He was incredibly generous and very kind. He was like, ‘I feel like Dexter’s in good hands’ and ‘this is yours now to have your iteration.’”
Gibson adds, “He shared some really incredible insights into Dexter that illuminated some things and questions that I had.”
Gibson says he didn’t meet with Hall until that first table read, because he worked with Phillips, the original Dexter showrunner who left after season four, and executive producer Michael Lehmann, who reunites with his Heathers star Christian Slater in Original Sin, as Slater plays Dexter’s dad, a younger Harry Morgan (who was played by James Remar in the original). Sister Deb, originally played by Jennifer Carpenter, is played by Molly Brown.
“Anyone could see at that table read that it was real magic,” adds Sarah Michelle Gellar, who joins a cast filled with familiar characters in a new role. “Paddy was sick and so he had to be on Zoom. And Michael C. Hall was out of state, so he had to be on Zoom. All of us are sitting in this room with this huge TV with Michael and Paddy side by side, and it was so seamless. The intonations, the modulations. You would have thought they rehearsed for nine years. It was then in that moment that you say to yourself, ‘Oh, this works.’”
Gellar makes her debut in the premiere of Original Sin when 20-year-old Dexter gets an internship at the Miami Metro homicide offices where his father works as a detective, along with the 1990’s versions of Detective Angel Batista, forensic analyst Vince Masuka and Detective Maria LaGuerta (played in Original Sin by James Martinez, Alex Shimizu and Christina Milian, respectively). Gellar’s character, Tanya Martin, is head of the department and mentor to young intern Dexter. Patrick Dempsey also plays a new character as department captain.
If tasked with revisiting a younger Gellar, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer icon says Dexter and James Bond were always the two franchises she went on record saying she wished she starred in. Now, acting out one of those pinch-me moments, Gellar says she and Gibson have a pivotal onscreen relationship as the series progresses, describing Tanya and Dexter in Star Wars terms.
“She has a lot of influence on Dexter,” she tells THR of Tanya. “Accidentally, she is really the one teaching him how to be the incredible serial killer that you meet in the original show. And there’s a lot of weight to that, because she thinks she’s teaching Anakin Skywalker, but really, she’s teaching Darth Vader.”
When speaking to THR previously about casting Original Sin, Phillips said the entire ensemble were his first casting choices, and he spoke of the moment he knew Gibson could embody a young Dexter. “We were looking at [casting] tapes until we went blind, and [Paddy] just popped out. I immediately brought him into the studio, sat with him for about an hour. He looked great. He’s in great shape; he’s Michael C. Hall’s size. And he’s a big fan of the show. We watched him work and we knew we had what we were looking for. I’ve never been able to say this before in my career: We got all our first choices,” he said.
If all goes well, Phillips — who also explained why he and Hall decided to bring Dexter back to life after that fateful New Blood finale — says he plans for both Original Sin and the forthcoming Resurrection to run for multiple seasons. “The buzz is very good and I’m hopeful,” he said. Resurrection starts production in January and Original Sin releases new episodes weekly (Fridays on Paramount+ and Sunday nights at 10 p.m. on Showtime). Read THR‘s deep dive story on bringing Dexter back to life.
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