Summary
Dexter: Original Sinwill air on Paramount + with Showtime in December 2024, and it’ll star Patrick Gibson and Christian Slater as Dexter and Harry Morgan, respectively. Michael Lehmann will also direct several episodes of the prequel series, and this has led to fans linking the origins of a key collaboration back to a classic 1980s movie.Lehmann directed the 1988 thriller,Heathers, which starred Christian Slater as teenage killer, Jason ‘J.D.’ Dean.
Lehmann and Slater are working together for the first time sinceHeathers, withDexter: Original Sinbeing set just three years after their hit movie came out.TheDexter prequel seriesis set to feature an eerily similar story of murder and young killer urges, which could copy the vibe of their previous collaboration onHeathers.
Heathers
Starring
Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, Penelope Milford, Glenn Shadix, Carrie Lynn, Patrick Labyorteaux and Lance Fenton
Directed By
Michael Lehmann
Heatherstakes place atWesterburg High, a typical high school in 1980s America: full of cliques and testosterone-fueled jocks chasing after the popular girls who all seem to be called Heather. In the middle of the popular girl clique is Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder), who is full of teenage angst mode and trying to find exactly where she fits intothe mean girl trope. Everything changes when a mysterious new kid called Jason ‘J.D.’ Dean (Christian Slater) arrives at the school, and the pair strike up a romantic relationship with deadly consequences.
Heather McNamara
Heather Duke
J.D. shares his plan to murder the popular girls and stage their deaths as suicides, and Veronica agrees to go along for the ride, as she’s sick of the group abusing their power and longs for a more peaceful life with less popular friends. J.D. and Veronica break into Heather Chandler’s (Kim Walker) house and serve her with a mug of drain cleaner, pretending it’s a hangover cure drink. The nasty concoction kills her, and Veronica forges a suicide note. The community brands Chandler’s suicide as the tragedy of a very troubled individual, but to J.D. and Veronica’s shock, she becomes more beloved in the aftermath of her death.
Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) gains extra popularity from her fellow clique members' death, and classes herself as the new leader of the group. J.D. and Veronica’s next targets are toxic jocks, Kurt and Ram (Lance Fenton and Patrick Labyorteaux), after they spread a vile rumor about Veronica. The pair lure the jocks into the woods, shoot them, and stage the scene to look like they were gay lovers who died in a suicide pact.
Veronica decidesher and J.D.’s dark romancehas gone too far and breaks up with him. After realizing J.D. plans to kill her, Veronica fakes her own suicide and when J.D. finds her, he unveils his plans to blow up the school to look like a mass suicide. J.D. plants dynamite in the school gym and goes to the boiler room to set the detonator. However, Veronica confronts him and shoots him, which causes the wires to cut. Veronica escapes the school, and J.D. follows her outside with a bomb strapped to his chest, and detonates the bomb and kills himself. Veronica takes control as the leader of the clique, and invites an unpopular girl called Martha (Carrie Lynn), to watch movies with her on prom night.
Dexter: Original Sin
Patrick Gibson, Christian Slater, Molly Brown, James Martinez, Christina Milian, Alex Shimizu, Reno Wilson, Patrick Dempsey, Joe Pantoliano, Sarah Michelle Gellar and the voice of Michael C. Hall
Created by
Christian Slater and Michael Lehmann will re-unite onDexter: Original Sin, 36 years after their first collaboration on the 80s classic,Heathers.TheDexterprequel series will feature a similar mix of teenage angst and murder, which could see it copy the vibe of Slater and Lehmann’s work onHeathers. Interestingly, both projects are set during a similar period, withHeatherstaking place in 1988 andDexter: Original Sinset in 1991. Slater commented on his renewed working relationship with Lehmann onDexter: Original Sinat San Diego Comic Con 2024:
Yeah, I was pretty excited about that. And who better than me to play Dexter’s dad? You know, I was Jason Dean. I was a killer for a while, so it was great.
There might also be some similarities between the two young serial killers at the center of both projects. Jason ‘J.D.’ Dean andDexter Morgan,who are both still perfecting their particular set of murderous skills in their formative days. It’ll also be interesting to see if the visual style inDexter: Original Sinis reminiscent of Lehmann’s 80s classic. However, it could be totally different as Lehmann has evolved as a director since this period in his career, with numerous credits on a string of television shows in more recent times.
Lehmann is also no stranger to the Dexter-verse, as he directed two episodes oftheDexteroriginal series. Lehmann directed the season 6 episode, ‘Ricochet Rabbit’, and season 7’s ‘The Dark…Whatever.’ Lehmann and Slater’s collaboration will be a treat for fans of their work onHeathersin 1988, andDexter: Original Sinis bound to revisit a similar dark tone.
