Christian Slater and Patrick Gibson star in the highly-anticipated prequel “Dexter: Original Sin.” The series takes place 15 years before audiences first met Dexter, from the original award-winning series starring Michael C. Hall.
The new series, which will air on Paramount+, follows young Dexter, played by Gibson, as he evolves from college student to serial killing vigilante. Slater stars as Dexter’s father, Harry, a homicide detective who teaches his son an ethical code for killing.
In the series premiere, Dexter comes clean with his dad.
“Harry, he’s a cop. He’s seen a lot of people get away with things they shouldn’t have gotten away with, so he tries to channel Dexter’s blood lust in that kind of direction. When you think about it, imagine how many more serial killers there would be in Miami if not for Dexter,” Slater said.
“See he’s already justifying it,” Gibson responded, laughing.
The duo said they worked together ahead of time to get into their father and son roles.
“I figured out how he likes to work. He figured out how I like to work and we basically like just to have a good time,” Slater said.
Both Gibson and Slater credit the writing of the series that helped them to channel their characters.
“It’s so fun to play a character who is kind of constrained by society’s expectations of him day-to-day, and then when you do these kill scenes, he is finally able to be himself,” Gibson said. “So there’s like an ugly, liberating quality about it, which is a bizarre thing to say when you’re a serial killer.”
For Slater, he said the prequel offers an opportunity to learn more about his character Harry and his love for his son.
“In the original show he was a character that you would get glimpses of, somebody who was in Dexter’s mind,” he said. “Now you actually get to learn more about his past, what kind of motivates him and the traumas he’s suffered which lead to I think his unconditional love of Dexter.”
“Dexter: Original Sin” premieres Friday Dec. 13 on Paramount+ with Showtime.