No stranger to grisly characters, Evan Peters will portray one of America’s most infamous serial killers for a new Netflix series.
The “American Horror Story” and “X-Men: Apocalypse” actor is set to take on the title role in “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which will be co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. According to Deadline, the series’ cast also includes Richard Jenkins, Penelope Ann Miller and Niecy Nash.
Though details are scarce, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” will be more of a psychological thriller than horror, and is said to chronicle its subject’s multiyear killing spree from the perspective of one of his victims.
The series will also view Dahmer’s case through the topical lens of white privilege, dramatizing at least 10 instances where the Wisconsin native ― described in press notes as “a clean-cut, good-looking white guy” ― was given a free pass by lenient cops and judges. While no release date was announced, the pilot episode will be directed by Carl Franklin.
Dahmer, alternately known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” and the “Milwaukee Monster,” murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. He also committed necrophilia and cannibalism on several of his victims, many of whom were people of color and some underage. Convicted of 16 murders, he died in 1994 at age 34 after being beaten by another inmate, Christopher Scarver.
“Monster” isn’t the first Hollywood project inspired by Dahmer’s crimes. The 2002 biopic “Dahmer” starred Jeremy Renner in the title role, while Disney Channel star Ross Lynch portrayed the serial killer during his teen years in 2017’s “My Friend Dahmer,” based on John “Derf” Backderf’s graphic novel of the same name.