Warning! Contains spoilers for Sweet Tooth.

Summary

• James Thacker is not based on a real person, but his character in Sweet Tooth draws inspiration from real-world explorers.
• The show's metaphors about humanity's actions causing an apocalypse parallel real-world concerns like climate change.
• While Sweet Tooth is a work of fiction, it reflects the importance of environmental stewardship and draws from real-life landscapes.

James Thacker's story in Sweet Tooth season 3 makes one curious whether he is based on a real person. Although Netflix's Sweet Tooth is quite evidently a work of fiction, it is hard not to notice how the show draws several metaphors to the real world. For instance, in its opening episodes, it accurately captures the chaos and anxieties that dawn upon the world after a deadly pandemic starts killing the masses.

By highlighting how the overarching apocalypse is a consequence of humanity's actions, Sweet Tooth also draws parallels with real-world concerns surrounding climate change. The show's portrayal of how young hybrid children will eventually inherit the planet while humans will perish is also a reminder of the importance of environmental stewardship. With so many allusions to the real world jam-packed in the Netflix series, it is hard not to wonder if its characters, like James Thacker, are also based on real people.

James Thacker Is Not A Real Person

Joel Tobeck Plays Sweet Tooth's Fictional Character, James Thacker

The way Sweet Tooth sheds light on James Thacker's past escapades and adventures might suggest that he was a real person or at least based on a real-world explorer. However, James Thacker is not based on a real person. The original Sweet Tooth comics primarily draw inspiration from Tim Truman’s Scout: War Shaman, Richard Corben and Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog, and Garth Ennis's The Punisher: The End. The writer and artist Jeff Lemire also drew from his experiences of growing up in Essex County, Ontario, while illustrating Sweet Tooth's landscapes.

James Thacker's Story In The Sweet Tooth Comics

Thacker's Story Is Slightly Different In The Sweet Tooth Comics

Dr. James Thacker is portrayed as an Englishman and taxidermist in the original Sweet Tooth comics, who goes on an Alaskan voyage to find his missing soon-to-be brother-in-law, Louis Simpson. Upon arrival, he and his crew form search parties. Things take a strange turn when Thacker and his party wake up to find their sled dogs brutally murdered. When they finally arrive at the location where Simpson was carrying out his mission, they find several dead men, seemingly killed by a disease. James assumes that Simpson, too, died from the disease until one night Simpson suddenly shows up.

...Simpson had unleashed the god of hunting and deer, Tekkietsertok.

Simpson seems eerily different and even warns Thacker and his ship's captain, Jasper, that they will never return home. He then recalls his backstory and tells them his initial goal was to introduce Christianity to the Alaskan locals. However, after learning their peaceful ways and falling in love, he settled with them. While exploring the local land one day, he entered a cave and opened a grave. The locals then informed him that only their shamans could visit their graves since they were the resting places of gods.

By opening the grave, Simpson had unleashed the god of hunting and deer, Tekkietsertok. With what followed, Simpson's wife gave birth to a deer boy, making the locals believe their god had returned as a human. Soon, the "sick" started spreading, killing nearly everyone. Out of fear, Thacker and Jasper kill all the locals but spare Simpson and his son. Then, they shut the deer boy in the cave and leave for England. To their dismay, they, too, catch the sickness and die. Before his final moments in Sweet Tooth, Thacker fears someone else will come looking for him and open the cursed graves.

All Sweet Tooth seasons are available on Netflix for streaming.