We now know the exact year the shelved prequel series about Arthur Mitchell’s early years was meant to take place.
Not long ago, Showtime had bigger plans for Dexter. Following the success of Dexter: New Blood, the network was actually exploring several ways to expand the franchise with multiple new series. Among the projects that were announced but still waiting for an official green light was an intriguing one: a prequel centered on Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer.
To this day, Trinity remains one of the most iconic, but also creepiest villains Dexter Morgan ever faced. Portrayed by John Lithgow, the character left a big mark on the series and on fans, and that was something that made the idea of a deeper exploration into his past both a exciting and controversial.
Arthur Mitchell was a family man and respected philanthropist who secretly lived a double life. Traveling across the States, he actually recreated the same ritualistic cycle of murders over and over again, each representing a traumatic moment from his childhood.
The proposed Trinity prequel series wanted to dive into those origins and maybe explore how Arthur Mitchell became the monster we met in Dexter Season 4. Behind the scenes, the project had already progressed more than many people thought. Scripts for the entire first season had been completed, something that in fact gave the creative team a fully developed story arc from the start.
Even more exciting was the involvement of Lithgow himself. While he would not appear on screen as a younger version of Arthur Mitchell for obvious reasons, the actor had actually agreed to return as the narrator of the series. Despite all that, very little information was revealed publicly about the Trinity prequel after its initial announcement. And one of the biggest unanswered questions among fans was when exactly the story would take place.
Arthur Mitchell was already in his 60s when he first crossed paths with Dexter Morgan in 2009. That meant the prequel could potentially explore several different periods of his life. But now, we finally have a clear answer: the series was intended to take place in 1982.
Based on Lithgow’s real-life birth year, 1945, that would place Arthur Mitchell at around 37 years old during the events of that show. Considering that Trinity was 64 when the events of Season 4 unfolded, the prequel would have actually taken us 27 years back into his past.
The reveal did not come through a new announcement, but rather through a nearly forgotten Portuguese-language interview from the Dexter: Resurrection press coverage last summer. During the conversation, EP and writer Scott Reynolds briefly mentioned the exact year the story would be set in.
In most of the interviews over the past year, Reynolds and showrunner Clyde Phillips both spoke enthusiastically about the project. They emphasized how proud they were of the scripts for the planned 10-episode first season, actually describing the writing as strong and carefully crafted.
However, despite that optimism...Paramount never made an official announcement moving the show forward. With new leadership, and the company’s corporate landscape that is still evolving, the Trinity prequel now appears to be indefinitely shelved.
In all honesty, the project itself has always been somewhat divisive for fans. Some people did not really feel good about the idea of centering an entire series around Arthur Mitchell, a character directly responsible for the murder of Rita Morgan.
Still, the passion that the Dexter creative team expressed for the show made it clear that they believed the story was actually worth telling. A Dexter series set in the early 1980s (right between Dexter: Original Sin’s present timeline and its flashbacks), featuring a younger version of Arthur Mitchell and Lithgow’s unique voiceover, could have been something really nice.
For now, though, it seems unlikely that the Trinity prequel will ever reach production. And especially after what happened with Dexter: Original Sin, well...we probably shouldn’t expect to see this particular part of the Dexterverse come to life anytime soon.