Original Sin’ Creator Is ‘Not Happy’ About Show’s Cancellation

Dexter: Original Sin creator Clyde Phillips is opening up about the show being canceled after just one season.

Phillips, 75, revealed on Dissecting Dexter podcast that the show’s cancellation, which Variety reported in August, was difficult news to receive.

“It was a tough phone call that I got that night. They had already picked up the show, and I’d informed all the writers and informed all the actors, and then they un-picked it up…” the showrunner shared. “It wasn’t handled well, and I’m not happy about it.”

The show followed a younger Dexter (Patrick Gibson) as he “transitions from student to avenging serial killer” and learns to “channel his inner darkness,” according to a synopsis. The show also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christina Milian, Patrick Dempsey and Christian Slater.

Phillips claimed on the podcast that former Paramount boss Chris McCarthy “wanted the ‘Dexter’-verse to expand” prior to the merger between Paramount and Skydance, which was completed on Aug. 7.

“He wanted me to be his new Taylor Sheridan,” he claimed, referring to the creator of Yellowstone and its spinoffs. “We plotted out a couple of years of this, looking forward to introducing new characters.”

He suggested that shows centering around younger versions of James Doakes (Erik King) and Captain Matthews (Geoff Pierson) could have been in the works.

Phillips shared that he spent a year in Los Angeles focused on “writing all these shows” and “creating the [Dexter]-verse,” but “then the merger happened and Paramount had other plans,” he alleged.

Paramount did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.

While season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection is still in the works, a potential Trinity spinoff — which would have focused on the killer played by John Lithgow in the original series — has been put on the “back-burner,” according to Phillips.

“I honestly don’t think [Paramount is] going to go for it,” he said of the potential spinoff. “I just think they’re interested in Resurrection.”

“If they cancel Original Sin, which is a built-in hit, how are they going to pick up Trinity?” he questioned. “If they do, I’d be delighted, but I don’t see them doing it.”

In Dexter: Resurrection, Michael C. Hall reprised his role as Dexter Morgan while interacting with a whole new cast of evil characters played by guest stars Peter Dinklage, Uma Thurman, Neil Patrick Harris and Eric Stonestreet, among others.

“Like, Al Pacino and the mafia. It just keeps pulling me back in,” Hall told Deadline in July 2025, about returning. “When we finished the series proper and Dexter put himself into self-imposed exile, I knew we may well be revisiting him at some point to find out what the hell happened to him.”

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 Dexter: Original Sin and Dexter: Resurrection are streaming on Paramount+.