In a spinoff-laden 2024 that even gave Scar from “The Lion King” a sneaky origin story, it’s no wonder that Showtime’s foremost serial killer is back for “Dexter: Original Sin.”
The new prequel series is streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime and — spoiler alert — begins by foreshadowing Michael C. Hall’s return as the clever antihero for the upcoming “Dexter: Resurrection” sequel series. That reveal puts even more pressure on “Original Sin” star Patrick Gibson to nail his rendition of the blood-thirsty title character at 20.
“When I saw this script, my initial thought was, ‘Dang, that’s going to be tough for the guy who has to play Dexter because that’s such a performance to follow,’” actress Molly Brown told IndieWire. “But Michael just wasn’t finished with the character, and the audience isn’t finished either. The only way you can do that is if both parties feel that way, and they do.”
Gibson is making 1991’s Dexter his own, Brown said, by thriving in the complex mask-work that’s required to play a lethal psychopath learning to conceal his still-emerging condition. Conversely, Brown feels a kind of “kismet” portraying the unflappably genuine Deb, Dexter’s sister, as an otherwise average and relatable 17-year-old.
“I’ve never gotten to play the entire emotional bandwidth of a character the way that I got to with this role,” said Brown, noting the benefits of working across all ten episodes at once. “I’ve mostly done a lot of guest-starring work and had roles in movies where you’re there to serve the story. This felt like I was there to serve Deb.”
As Debra Morgan — a fan-favorite “Dexter” character originated by Jennifer Carpenter — Brown assumes the heart of the franchise for many. The actress was too young to watch the original show when it aired (“I would have been… six?” she guessed), but she caught up in college and has been a viewer ever since. Watching the show with her brother, Brown said, her sister-in-law once entered the room and mistakenly thought it was already Brown on TV.
“It’s funny because I’m not putting on a voice. We just have a similar way of speaking,” she said. “What I’ve been told before by people in this industry is when a role is meant for you it will be for you, and I truly think me getting this opportunity is proof of that.”
“Original Sin” cast Brown as Deb for a five-month shoot and began with two weeks on-location capturing key exterior scenes in Miami. That dropped Brown and her co-star Gibson directly into “a huge climactic scene in episode eight.”
“I can’t say too much about what happens in the scene, but it is Debra at one of her lowest points,” Brown said. “One of the things that I really like in this series, the prequel, is that you show their sibling relationship evolve over the course of time.”
She continued, “In the original show, Dexter is really good at being a supportive brother, but in ours, he’s really failing. This is one of the times where he comes through for her, and so she has this release. It’s just hilarious that that was the first scene we ever did together.”
Broadly, the character fits Brown like a latex glove. She has yet to meet Carpenter in-person but got her predecessor’s blessing through the same source that gave her the big news.
“She gave the casting director John Papsidera a message to pass to me, which was really nice that I have her support,” Brown said. “[She said] that she’s my biggest fan, which she and my mom might have to discuss whether that’s true or not.”
The natural fit between Brown and Carpenter is a testament to the art of great casting, and Deb’s memorable cadence and energy seems innate to both actresses. Still, the surprisingly tricky part — playing a new version of a beloved legacy character as she would have acted in the past — was not without its challenges.
A significant height difference between Carpenter and Brown caused “Original Sin” to write Deb onto a high school volleyball court, where the five-foot-three actress endured a brutal physical and psychological endurance test despite working with sports coordinators. “On the day I had 200 background actors watching me just fuck up volleyball,” Brown said.
Plus, in a prequel for a franchise with a history as long as “Dexter” and its spinoffs, squaring up canonical events you know are still to come can be complicated. Asked about a bizarre reality — that one day Deb will profess her romantic love for the very same biological brother we’re watching her pal around with in “Original Sin” — Brown is good-humored and diplomatic.
“I chose not to really play into any of that, at least I hope it doesn’t seem like I did,” she said. “Regardless of how people feel about where the show took that aspect of it, what we were left with in [Season 7] was Deb finding that out for the first time. So I didn’t have to incorporate any of that into my performance.”
That commitment to authenticity will drive Deb through to whatever awaits her in Episode 8 — and even further into the legacy of one of the most resilient killers on TV. Acting opposite “Heathers” icon Christian Slater, as a younger version of Deb and Dexter’s dad, Brown said underscored the lasting draw of dark vigilante justice.
“Everyone is putting on a performance and watching Dexter try to figure out how to put on that performance really works,” the “Original Sin” star said. “It’s also what makes Debra go off even more when she’s looking for anything real from these men in her life.”
“Dexter: Original Sin” premiered Friday, December 13 on Paramount+ with Showtime. New episodes will be released weekly.
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