Trinity Killer Prequel Series Moving Along with Clyde Phillips & Scott Reynolds as Co-Creators; More Details Revealed
by Rosy Cordero
December 23, 2024


The Trinity Killer prequel series, following the makings of the notorious serial killer played by John Lithgow in the mothership "Dexter" series, remains “in development” at Paramount+ with Showtime and has come a long way since it was originally announced in early 2023 as being in the exploration stages, sources close to production tell Deadline.

Original showrunner Clyde Phillips and fellow "Dexter" veteran Scott Reynolds serve as co-creators and executive producers of the Trinity Killer spinoff prequel, we hear. They held a development room for the project earlier this spring. As scripts were being written, there were erroneous media reports that the project was not moving forward which was never the case, sources said.




Phillips shared an update on the Trinity Killer offshoot with Deadline while promoting "Dexter: Original Sin" in New York City earlier this month.

“We wrote the entire Trinity Killer series. At the moment, it is on the back burner,” he said. “John Lithgow has agreed to be the voice of his younger self the way Michael Hall is doing for [Original Sin]. There’s that and we’re doing another show with Michael C. Hall, [Resurrection]… We were writing that while shooting Original Sin, so that’s fairly busy. We begin shooting [Resurrection] in January and it will air in June 2025.”

https://deadline.com/2024/12/dexter-trinity-killer-prequel-update-clyde-phillips-1236209978/

"Dexter" Showrunner Confirms Trinity Prequel Unlikely to Happen
by Abdullah Al-Ghamdi
Sept. 19, 2025


"Dexter" showrunner Clyde Phillips reveals that another spinoff is dead. It came as a shock earlier this year when it was announced that "Dexter: Original Sin" season 2 would not be moving forward, ending Patrick Gibson's run as the young vigilante-like killer in the early 1990s.

The prequel was envisioned as only one of several potential spinoffs for the Showtime hit. In addition to Michael C. Hall coming back for "Dexter: Resurrection", there were also reports about an offshoot that would center on the origins of John Lithgow's memorable Trinity character.




In a new interview on the Dissecting Dexter podcast, Phillips opened up about the thought process behind expanding the "Dexter" universe. Phillips, an EP on the original series, who returned to spearhead the revivals, recalled that it was a project of Chris McCarthy, a top executive at Paramount, who has since left the company:

"It goes back to Chris McCarthy, who was head of Paramount then, who was the Yellowstone guy. Yellowstone had a couple of prequels to it to set it up — 1883, 1923. And so that was because, after New Blood, Showtime picked up Harrison's story, and we wrote 10 scripts of Harrison, which is completely different than where he ended up in Resurrection, because Dexter wasn't involved.

And then they picked up Trinity. 10 scripts. We wrote 10 scripts of Trinity. I live on the East Coast. I was in L.A. for over a year with my writers. Saw my wife four times last year, writing all these shows and creating the universe."




In addition to revealing the plans for "Dexter" to be like "Yellowstone", Phillips also doubted that the Trinity prequel would happen, indicating the studio is putting all of its resources into one show, in particular. He explains those doubts in the quote below:

"It's backburnered. And I honestly don't think they're going to go for it. I just think they're interested in Resurrection. I mean, if they cancel Original Sin, which is a built-in hit, how are they going to pick up Trinity? If they do, I'd be delighted, but I don't see them doing it."

https://screenrant.com/dexter-trinity-killer-spinoff-shelved-update-clyde-phillips/