Summary
Dexter: Original Sinwill be set in Miami in 1991, and it’ll follow a young Dexter Morgan as he embarks on an internship in the forensic department of Miami Metro Homicide. Turns out,Miami was the real life hub of violent crime back in 1991, and this could provide Dexter with a slew of potential victims that fit Harry’s code.
1991 was also a year that serial killers were very much a part of the popular culture landscape, with the potential for them to provide an impressionable Dexter with some twisted role modelsas he tries toavoid the urge to kill good people. Patrick Gibson will play young Dexter, with Christian Slater as Harry and Molly Brown as teenage potty mouth Debra. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Patrick Dempsey will also appear in recurring roles.
Miami Was The Murder Capital Back In 1991 And This is The Perfect Backdrop For The Dexter Prequel Series
Back in 1991,the iconic location of Miami, Floridawas considered to be the ultimate paradise for many tourists, but it had a much darker underbelly. In fact,Miami was considered to be the murder capital of America in 1991.It appears to be no coincidence that showrunner, Clyde Phillips and his team of writers chose this particular year to setDexter’s prequel show,with murder being what Dexter does best. Phillips elaborated on the choice during the prequel seriespanel at San Diego Comic Con 2024:
We wanted Dexter to be a certain age. We wanted him to just be starting out at Miami Metro police, and we needed him to quit college and be an intern in forensics.
Basically,Dexter is going to have a lot of newvillains in the seriesto kill, and there are bound to be lots of mistakes along the way,as he isn’t yet the neat monster that fans first became accustomed to in the originalDexterseries in 2006. Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry Morgan, will be alive during this time period and working as a detective in Miami Metro Homicide inDexter: Original Sin.Harry will surely be on hand to give Dexter some inspiration on who might be suitable for his kill table.
There’ll be plenty of bad guys for Dexter to choose from in Miami during this particular time, with lots of drug murders and potential serial killers roaming the streets. There were plenty of killers Dexter needed to take off the streets in the noughties, butDexter: Original Sincould reveal a darker, more prolific period in Dexter’s serial killing career, with some interesting plot points linked to 1991’s murder epidemic in Miami.
Dexter Could Be Heavily Influenced By Real Life And Fictional Serial Killers That Featured In Popular Culture in the 90s
Aside from Miami being the epicenter of murder back in 1991, it was also the year of some iconic real life and fictional serial killers.During theDexter: Original Sinpanel at San Diego Comic Con 2024, executive producer Scott Reynolds revealed that the prequel will focus on how these killers influenced a very impressionable Dexter Morgan back in 1991.
This is 1991. This is the age of serial killers. They were everywhere, they were on the news. Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho came out that year. Silence Of The Lambs. Of course, all the real ones, (Ted) Bundy and the Green River killer and BTK. This is a Dexter Morgan who has been absorbing all of that and thinking, am I like them? Is this what I am? Am I as scary and horrible as this?
The influence of real life serial killers was never fully explored in the originalDexterseries, as Dexter had fully embracedHarry’s code, and saw himself as a class above the killers who targeted innocent people. However, it’ll be interesting to see Dexter during his formative years inDexter: Original Sin, as he absorbs all the information about serial killers, and questions if he is a monster himself as he deals with his urges and channels them.
The influence of popular culture on youngDexterwill be a fascinating avenue to explore, as the rookie serial killer figures out his place in the pantheon of murderers. The media in the 90s had a tendency to glamorize serial killers and crime in general, and the sunny backdrop of Miami helped to perpetuate this particular image. For instance, the TV series,Miami Vicewas guilty of glamorizing crime, when the reality was quite the opposite.
Dexter: Original Sinis bound to show the ugly realities of murder, with brutal crime scenes, and Dexter’s own kills.However, this doesn’t mean the show won’t feature certain homages to the media image of Miami back in those days. In fact, episode 3 of Dexter: Original Sinwill be called ‘Miami Vice’, so fans can expect some ironic commentary on this particular image of the city.
