American Horror StoryandWandaVisionstar Evan Peters will play the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s limited series,Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which is due to debut on Netflix. Along with Evans, Niecy Nash, star of 2015’sScream Queens, has been cast as the show’s female lead, Glenda Cleveland. Glenda Cleveland was a neighbor of Dahmer’s who tried several times to report his nefarious acts to the police and the F.B.I. but was ignored.
The ArtistandKindergarten CopstarPenelope Ann Millerhas also been cast in the series as Dahmer’s mother, Joyce (which incidentally was also her name in Kindergarten Cop) with Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Waterhaving been previously announced to be starring in the role of Dahmer’s father, Lionel. Shaun Brown (Run) and Colin Ford (We Bought a Zoo) have also been cast in supporting roles, with Brown portraying Tracy, an intended victim who managed to escape from Dahmer, and Ford playing a character named Chazz.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storywillchronicle the story of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer (Peters), with the events largely told from the point of view of Dahmer’s victims. The series will explore the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the Wisconsin native to go on a multiyear killing spree, examining the factor of white privilege that led to Dahmer, a clean-cut, good-looking white man, getting away with his heinous crimes for so long. The series will reportedly dramatize at least 10 instances where Dahmer was almost apprehended but ultimately let go, repeatedly given a free pass by the police and judges, who were often lenient when he had been charged with petty crimes.
MindhunterandHouse of Cardsdirector Carl Franklin is set to direct the pilot episode of the series, which will consist of 10-episodes in total. Janet Mock (Pose) will also write and direct several episodes of the limited series.Scream Queens’Ian Brennan andAmerican Horror Storycreator and writer are both on board as producers alongside Franklin and Mock. David McMillan will write and serve as supervising producer with Color of Change’s Rashad Robinson also serving as a supervising producer. Alexis Martin Woodall and Eric Kovtun are executive producing forRyan MurphyProductions. Scott Robertson will co-produce.
Jeffrey Dahmer, who became known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, is a convicted American serial killer and sex offender who committed the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. His murders and actions thereafter involved all manner of horrific details, including cannibalism.
Several movies have been made about Jeffrey Dahmer over the years, withAvengers: Endgamestar Jeremy Renner playing the killer in the 2002 biographical movieDahmer. The most recent telling was director Marc Meyers' 2017 movieMy Friend Dahmer, which details his early years in high school in the 1970s, ending just before Dahmer began his killing spree in 1978.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storyis expected to hitNetflixlater this year. This comes to us courtesy ofDeadline.
