As bizarre as it is to consider for too long, Michael C. Hall’s appetite-heavy killer-of-killers will soon be back on the small screen in a completely new way, with the sequel series Dexter: Resurrection taking both him and Jack Alcott’s Harrison Morgan into the hustle and bustle of New York City. The new series will feature an appearance from John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer, among other former franchise stars, but what about that standalone idea that was previously discussed?
It turns out Dexter producer Clyde Phillips, who took on showrunning duties for Resurrection, hasn’t dropped the ball at all in regards to a potential spinoff digging into the backstory of Lithgow’s Arthur Mitchell, arguably Dexter’s most vicious villain. In fact, he told Collider that the only thing keeping it from happening right now is a lack of a greenlight from the powers that be. As he put it:
It’s completely written. John Lithgow has agreed to do the voice, to narrate it, but it is not picked up yet. We’re hoping that with the success of Resurrection, and Original Sin has just been picked up, that Chris McCarthy and the Paramount people will want to expand the Dexterverse. But it has not been picked up yet.
Talk about confidence in an idea. Clyde Phillips & Co. not only crafted a working outline for the Trinity Killer’s rise to infamy, but they went ahead and scripted the entire shebang. Without a thumbs up from network execs, that’s quite a big risk to take; or if not necessarily a risk, than potentially a lot of time being spent focusing on a lost cause. But hopefully that won’t be the case.
Arthur Miller gave audiences one of the most shocking TV moments of all time, not just for Dexter, but any show, in the final episode of Season 4. It absolutely changed the course of Dexter’s life, as well as that of his and Rita’s son. Surely he had a similarly devastating effect on other family’s lives prior to that, though, which is the kind of subject matter I’d assume the prequel-ized series would follow.
Within Dexter’s canon, Arthur’s prolific run as a serial killer lasted for three decades, all while he maintained a public life as a beloved and well-respected high school teacher and church deacon. Despite being highly abusive towards his wife and children, he’s also viewed as being a family man, though his views on families are a bit more twisted than most. He crossed the country committing his patterned crimes, evading capture and recognition, and it sounds like the creative team knows exactly where those crimes are happening.
Will we get to see another awkward Thanksgiving dinner quite like this one, though?
It’s unclear whether or not John Lithgow himself would ever be seen on the show, or if he would only appear through voiceovers and narration. It stands to reason he won’t have a ton of time in the near future to take on many TV roles, since he’s set to play Dumbledore in the upcoming Harry Potter series.
For now, all we need to do as fans is watch the hell out of Dexter: Resurrection so that Showtime and Paramount+ and all the execs involved make the right call and order up the Trinity Killer spinoff before it’s too late.
