Patrick Dempsey joins Dexter: Original Sin in a major role

Patrick Dempsey has joined the cast of Dexter: Original Sin as a series regular. He’s set to play Aaron Spencer, the Captain of Miami Metro Homicide who has a decades-long relationship with Harry Morgan, Dexter’s father. Should we be concerned that this character hasn’t been mentioned before?

Dexter: Original Sin is set in 1991, 15 years before the events of the original series. It follows Dexter “as a student transitioning into a serial killer in training. When his bloodthirsty urges can no longer be ignored, Dexter finds solace and understanding in Harry. As his only confidant, he teaches Dexter a Code that’s designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to die—all while avoiding getting caught by law enforcement. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.“

Patrick Gibson (Shadow and Bone) will be playing Dexter in the prequel series, taking over from Michael C. Hall. I don’t really know if the role needed to be recast; I’m sure they could have dug up that terrible flashback wig and slapped it on Hall once again. The rest of the cast includes Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) as Harry Morgan, Molly Brown (Senior Year) as Debra Morgan, James Martinez (Love Victor) as Angel Batista, Christina Milian (Falling Inn Love) as Maria LaGuerta, Alex Shimizu (The Blacklist) as Vince Masuka, and Reno Wilson (Mike & Molly) as new character Bobby Watt.

Clyde Phillips, who served as the showrunner of the first four seasons of the original series and the Dexter: New Blood revival, is back as showrunner and executive producer on the prequel. Production kicked off in Miami earlier this month. The series will be available from Paramount+ with Showtime, with the first season expected to consist of 10 episodes.

As a fan of Dexter, particularly the first four seasons, I’ll admit that I’m intrigued by this prequel. But we saw so much of Dexter’s younger years play out in flashbacks throughout the series; is there really multiple seasons worth of story left to tell?