When Showtime becomes Paramount+ With Showtime, the service will hone in on some of its established franchises.
Showtime boss Chris McCarthy spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the future, and there are some big swings.
For one, the Billions franchise is becoming a universe with spinoffs titled Millions and Trillions.
That’s the working title for those shows, and unless Showtime wants to cause some confusion, they will probably change it if the shows reach the production stage.
There are — reportedly — four spinoffs in the works for Billions. If most of those shows make it on the air, they will effectively become the Power universe of Showtime.
Starz has had plenty of success by expanding the Power universe, but it’s a bit hard to believe that Billions could reach the same success.
The good news is that Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien are on board to bring this universe to life.
They may have had plans to expand the Billions universe, but time will tell if the new shows will be worthwhile.
The Dexter universe also looks poised to expand considerably.
It was recently reported that Dexter: New Blood had been put on ice by Showtime in favor of a prequel series about the killer’s younger years.
However, that show still appears to be in line to return in some capacity down the line.
Moreover, Dexter prequels focused on fan-favorite characters like the Trinity Killer are also being discussed.
While Showtime is zeroing in on franchises, it will still bring new shows into the fold.
“Of course we’re going to do new shows,” McCarthy told the WSJ.
“But we’re going to do [originals] in a way that has a much more stable base because we’ll have these big tentpoles that bring and hold the audience.”
It was recently announced that Showtime will merge with Paramount+ soon.
At the time, shows like Let the Right One In and American Gigolo were canceled, while several shows were removed from streaming entirely.
“It doesn’t mean they weren’t great, creative shows. They just weren’t for us,” McCarthy said.
“Our job is to make those hard calls so that we can clear things out and deliver for our shareholders and consumers by reinvesting in shows we know will work.”
What are your thoughts on the expansions of Dexter and Billions?
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.