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Billions, Dexter spin-offs in the works as Showtime shifts focus to scripted franchises

Billions stars Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades

Showtime is developing multiple Billions and Dexter spin-offs as it leans more heavily into scripted franchises following news of its integration with Paramount+.

Four new projects connected to New York-set finance drama Billions are being developed, including spin-offs based in Miami and London. Showtime is also developing separate projects under the working titles Millions and Trillions.

Billions: Miami (working title) is set in the world of private aviation “where the clientele believe the rules of society, government and gravity don’t apply to them, amidst the wealth, nightlife, contraband and the cryptocurrency that pulses through that city.”

Brian Koppelman and David Levien, showrunners of the original iteration of Billions, are currently penning the Miami-based spin-off.

Less is known about Billions: London (working title), aside from the fact it is set in the world of UK finance.

Bob Bakish

Meanwhile, Millions follows “diverse, thirtysomething, financial mogul wannabes doing whatever it takes to make it in Manhattan” and Trillions is a drama “based on fictional stories of the richest people in the world – titans of industry living all over the country but coming into contact and conflict with one another.”

Koppelman and Levien, who are jointly under a multi-year overall deal at Showtime, will be involved with all the Billions spin-offs with Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios. They will also continue to showrun Billions, which stars Paul Giamatti, Corey Stoll and Maggie Siff and is currently in production on its seventh season.

Showtime also handed a straight-to-series order to a Dexter prequel series, Dexter: Origins (working title), executive produced by Clyde Phillips.

Dexter: New Blood, the sequel series to the original Dexter, is also being expanded with development underway on a “new version” that focuses on the son of serial killer and forensic blood spatter analyst Dexter Morgan.

Showtime added that it is looking to develop new series around other characters from the Dexter franchise.

The original Dexter series ran for eight seasons on Showtime between 2006 and 2013 before it was revived with Dexter: New Blood, which premiered in November 2021.

Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, made the announcement about plans to extend Billions and Dexter.

The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that Showtime is being integrated with Paramount+ across both streaming and linear.

The new offering, set to launch later this year, will see Showtime’s US linear service rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime. The premium SVoD tier of Paramount+ will also be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime in the US.

Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish said the integration would help “unlock operational efficiencies and financial benefits across our broader portfolio.”

Explaining the business rationale in a memo to staff, McCarthy said the company would “divert investment away from areas that are underperforming and that account for less than 10% of our views.”

Showtime cancelled a trio of series last week including drama series Three Women, which had completed production on its first season but was yet to air. The show, based on American author Lisa Taddeo’s non-fiction book of the same name, about a group of women who are on course to radically change their lives, is currently being shopped to new buyers.

Let the Right One In and American Gigolo were also both cancelled after one season on Showtime.

Elsewhere, Showtime ordered The Department (working title), an espionage thriller from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.

The project is based on French drama series Le Bureau des Legendes (The Bureau), which follows agents within France’s principal external security service. Filming is set to begin later this year, with Clooney directing.

The original incarnation of the show, which debuted in 2015 and ran for five seasons, was a Canal+ original series produced by The Originals Productions (TOP) and Federation Studios.

Executive producers on the new English-language version include: Keith Cox and Nina L Diaz of MTV Entertainment Studios; David C Glasser, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin and Bob Yari of 101 Studios; TOP’s Alex Berger; and Federation’s Ashley Stern and Pascal Breton.

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