Here for a bloody good time! Dexter is truly a one-of-a-kind series and it had an unforgettable eight-season run on Showtime.
The series, developed by James Manos Jr. and based on author Jeff Lindsay’s novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, aired between 2006 to 2013. The acclaimed series follows Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a man who works with the Miami police but is secretly a serial killer who goes after other murderers.
Hall starred alongside Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan), David Zayas (Angel Batista), James Remar (Harry Morgan), C.S. Lee (Vince Masuka), Luna Lauren Vélez (María LaGuerta), Desmond Harrington (Joey Quinn), Julie Benz (Rita Bennett) and many more throughout the eight seasons.
In 2011, Hall opened up about how he enjoyed playing such a layered character. “An actor — me — who is preoccupied with cultivating a sense of authenticity … playing someone who claims to be without the capacity for authenticity, emotionally or otherwise, who’s always pretending. In a way, it was liberating to let go of that preoccupation — ‘Does this feel right? Does this feel authentic? Am I telling the truth here?’” the Six Feet Under alum told NPR at the time. “Playing someone who, as far as he was concerned, was always stimulating his behavior. Dexter was an actor of sorts.”
Hall previously teased the possibility of revisiting the once-popular series. “People on the street are always telling me about the talk of a Dexter reboot,” he said in 2018 to Variety. “There’ve been little percolations, but nothing that’s felt worth pursuing.”
Though the Peep World actor didn’t “have any immediate, definitive plans to do any of that” at the time, it was announced in October 2020 that Dexter would be revived at Showtime as a limited series.
“Dexter is such a special series, both for its millions of fans and for Showtime, as this breakthrough show helped put our network on the map many years ago,” Gary Levine, the president of Showtime, said in a statement at the time. “We would only revisit this unique character if we could find a creative take that was truly worthy of the brilliant, original series.”
Levine added, “Well, I am happy to report that [original executive producer] Clyde Phillips and Michael C. Hall have found it, and we can’t wait to shoot it and show it to the world!”
Titled Dexter: New Blood, the revival debuted in November 2021 to critical acclaim. Ahead of the season finale in January 2022, Hall told The Los Angeles Times that he was pleased with the way the new series ended. The final episode — spoiler alert — showed Dexter being murdered by his son, Harrison (Jack Alcott).
“The way the season concludes is one that resonates with me,” explained the Crown alum, who was famously unhappy with the end of the original series. “It feels justifiable. As upsetting as it may be, I hope audiences will appreciate the resonance of Dexter dying this way at the hands of his son.”
Scroll down to see what the original cast has been up to since the show initially ended.