“Original Sin” photos show Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Gellar

You've never seen Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Gellar like this before.

The legendary TV stars have completely transformed themselves for Dexter: Original SinAnd Weekly entertainment offers you an exclusive first look at the 90s Miami Cop makeover for the Dexter Prequel series.

Set in Miami in 1991, 15 years before the original series. Dexter: Original Sin follows the eponymous Dexter (originally played by Michael C. Hall, but here portrayed by Shadows and Bones's Patrick Gibson) before he became a serial killer. When Dexter's bloodthirsty urges can no longer be ignored, his father Harry (Christian Slater, standing in for James Remar) helps him embrace the code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve it, and keeps his younger sister (originally played by Jennifer Carpenter, but now played by Molly Brown) in the dark.

The first photos from EW show Grey's Anatomy Dempsey wears a mustache and slicked back hair as Captain Aaron Spencer, head of the Miami Metro Police Department's homicide squad, during Buffy the Vampire Slayer And I know what you did last summer Gellar wears shoulder pads as CSI chief Tanya Martin, Dexter's new bosses when he begins an internship in forensics at Miami Metro PD, and the actors both had a lot of fun getting into the very different fashions and hairstyles of their characters in the '90s-set series.

“It's funny — I think it's a different '90s than the one I knew, because I was like, 'I don't remember that hairstyle,'” Gellar says, laughing. “But I played a teenager in the '90s, not an adult in a business setting, so maybe that's how people dressed in the '90s. Maybe that's how they wore their hair. In Miami in the '90s, they wore a lot more makeup, oh man. It's a lot of blue eyeliner and blue mascara. It's a lot of shoulder pads, and I like to wear a good pair of shoulder pads — that's the closest I'll ever get to looking like a linebacker.”

Dempsey's new beard is absolutely real and he was the one who suggested that Captain Aaron Spencer should wear a mustache.

“I have to tell you, it was discovered by accident,” he admits to EW. “I was on vacation and I hadn't shaved in a while. I shaved my beard off because we were getting ready to go home and left the mustache because I thought, 'Maybe I should do this,' because I watched a lot of old Miami Police training videos from the '70s and everyone had mustaches. And then my hair was long and I slicked it back and sent the picture to the makeup and hair department and they loved the idea and that's how it started.”

Dempsey knows this look is “totally different from anything else” he's ever done before, and that was the point. “That's what I'm looking for, to do something where I can physically transform myself,” he says. “I've been lucky enough to have a long and successful career and to create a character that's popular, so it's nice to have the opportunity to step in and [do something totally different]. Hopefully fans will take to this character – I think it helps to change the look so people do a double take and say, 'Oh wait, what's going on here?'”

In fact, the physical transformation helped Dempsey get into his character's mindset, both in the '90s storyline and in flashbacks to the '70s. “It's fun to change your appearance, and it's fun to play a cop and a homicide detective,” he says. “I didn't do that.”

Gellar, who openly admits that she is a “basic bitch” because she thinks John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer is the best season of the original series, Dexter — says her role is the “comic relief” in the prequel. “It's fun to kind of unwittingly be the character who teaches Dexter everything he needs to know to be a really good serial killer without even knowing you're doing it,” she explains.

But Tanya isn't just someone to laugh at – she's also an extremely ambitious woman who has had to fight to get to where she is in her career. “In the early '90s, it was very rare to have a female department head, let alone a female department head at Miami Metro,” Gellar says. “So she has to be really tough and be a bit of a guy to make it that far and have a thick skin.”

Gellar loved sinking her teeth into the role because “it's a very different kind of character” than she usually does. “Even though I play a lot of tough guys, they usually always have this very sensitive side,” she says. “And I guess she has one, too. We're coming to an episode now where you'll learn about her love of animals. But she definitely had to work harder to get where she is than anyone else there.”

Captain Aaron Spencer had a very different path to the top. According to Dempsey, he and Dexter's father Harry are best friends, “and there's a brotherhood that goes back to the beginning of their careers. They came up together. Aaron turns to Harry because he trusts him the most. And Aaron is respected within the group for his wisdom and humility.”

Bringing Aaron and Harry's friendship to life on screen couldn't have been easier for Dempsey and Slater. The two, like their characters, have known each other their entire careers, having starred together in the 1991 film The Last Jedi. gangster. “It's funny because Christian and I worked together in the early '90s, so we were laughing and remembering that after 30 years, we're still in this business,” says Dempsey. “We laugh at our former younger selves and how ridiculous we were and where we came from. We go back to a time when we were, I guess, about the same age as young Dexter, so it was funny to remember that and make you realize how fast time flies.”

Gellar now lives [her] Teenage Dream” working on a set with Dempsey and Slater. “I was talking to my best friend from high school the other day and I asked her, 'Can you imagine if someone told us in high school that one day I would spend every day with these two?'” Gellar says, laughing. “And she said, 'No, we would never have believed that.' I can't buy love And Heather And Turn the volume upI mean, those were my teenage years!”

But now it's time to talk about the bloody, plastic-wrapped elephant in the room. Aaron and Tanya are both the best in their field when it comes to solving murders, so how can they not notice that there's an aspiring serial killer right under their noses?

“He's known Dexter since he was a little kid, he's seen him grow up,” says Dempsey. “My job as a detective is to find out what's going on and monitor what the detectives are doing.” [Meanwhile] There's the father-son relationship and the dark side of the passenger and how he tries to deal with that. As the series progresses, that voice gets louder and louder and it becomes more and more difficult for Dexter to control it.”

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Since both Dempsey and Gellar are playing new characters to the franchise, as opposed to the other characters who appear 15 years later in the original series, it's very likely that they'll end up at the tip of Dexter's soon-to-be favorite knife. “I've only signed for a year, so who knows?” Dempsey teases. “I love being on the show, but you never know what could happen.”

“It is Dexter – everyone should be concerned,” jokes Gellar. “Even some characters from the first movie that you never thought could be his victims ended up being his victims. So you can never be too careful with a show like this.”

Gellar and Dempsey joke about this all the time. “I've learned my lesson and I know what it means to be the character whose name is in the title,” jokes Gellar. “It's really fun not to be the character whose name is in the title. Isn't it nice not to have all that pressure?”

Dempsey agrees, adding: “After not being on shows for a long time, the one-year commitment is a good one to live with because you want to balance your life and being part of an ensemble is a nice balance. We're very happy that Patty is taking on this and he's a fantastic Dexter.”

Dexter: Original Sin The premiere is scheduled for December on Paramount+.