Everyone's favorite serial killer is returning to TV -- here's what fans need to know about 'Dexter: New Blood.'
Bad guys, beware -- Dexter is coming back! The acclaimed Showtime drama is returning for a "limited event series" that will see star Michael C. Hall returning to the role that made him a household name.
Last October, Showtime announced it was reviving the serial killer drama for a 10-episode season with Hall back as Dexter Morgan, nearly eight years after wrapping the original series.
Since then, Hall, Showtime and the series' producers have been releasing statements and official loglines, dropping hints and teases about what to expect, and dishing on why they decided to come together to bring new life to the character.
In anticipation of the exciting revival, we're answering all your questions and breaking down everything you need to know about Dexter's big return.
When will it premiere? The upcoming revival, Dexter: New Blood, premieres Sunday, Nov. 7 on Showtime.
Where it will air? The revival is set to premiere on Showtime, just as the original series did.
How many episodes will there be? Showtime has picked the revival up for 10 episodes. It's unclear if the limited series could lead to future seasons.
Who is behind the new series? The revival will reunite Hall with Clyde Phillips, who previously served as the showrunner -- as well as writer and executive producer -- on the original series during seasons 2 through 4, during which time the show was nominated for 18 Emmys.
What will it be about? When Dexter came to a close at the end of season 8 in September 2013, Dexter had faked his own death and was revealed to be living under an assumed identity as a lumberjack in Oregon. This revival series will take place after a decade-long time jump.
According to the official logline, "Set 10 years after Dexter Morgan went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura, the revival sees the character now living under an assumed name in a world away from Miami."
Phillips told TV Insider earlier this year that the revival will find Dexter "somewhere we've never seen him before."
Phillips assured fans that Dexter's efforts to escape his life of murder and bloodlust isn't something he's able to sustain. "Dexter always has what we call 'the dark passenger' living inside him," the showrunner said. "He is more grounded than he's ever been, but that dark passenger is a voice he cannot deny. This is Dexter. People are going to die."
And the first teaser hints that Dexter is definitely back to his murderous ways. "There really is nothing like getting back to nature. My nature," he says in the 10-second clip.
And the second teaser seems to confirm that Dexter definitely is back to his murderous ways.
A trailer released in September reveals quite a bit more. Dexter is certainly living in the fictional small town of Iron Lake, Minnesota, and going under the nondescript, low-key name of Jim Lindsay. He's in a relationship with the local sheriff and he's involving himself in the investigation of recent disappearances. He hasn't killed in 10 years, but there's still that itch that is begging to be scratched. Oh, and he's found by his son, Harrison!
As Dexter intones in the trailer, "I might still be a monster, but I'm an evolving monster."
Who will be returning or joining the cast?
Apart from Hall's return as the title character, Jennifer Carpenter is returning to reprise her role as Dexter's sister, Debra Morgan. Which is surprising, considering Debra died during the original run of the season.
John Lithgow, who played one of the show's most iconic villains, is also set to reprise his character of Arthur Mitchell/The Trinity Killer. Like Debra Morgan, Arthur Mitchell was also killed in the original series.
This suggests both are likely to appear either in flashback sequences or as visions in Dexter's head -- although anything is possible.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that veteran character actor Clancy Brown (Shawshank Redemption, Carnivàle, Billions) will be playing the season's primary antagonist, Kurt Caldwell. Variety reports that Caldwell serves as the "unofficial mayor" of the small town of Iron Lake, and that he runs the local truck stop and owns several big rigs. According to the official description of the character, Caldwell is "powerful, generous, loved by everyone -- he’s a true man of the people. If he’s got your back, consider yourself blessed. But should you cross Kurt, or hurt anyone that he cares for, God help you."
Showtime teased Brown's involvement as well, tweeting out the long list of the show's iconic villains, before including Brown's name on the list, and adding, "You're up."
Here's a look at who else is joining the cast, and descriptions of their characters:
- Julia Jones (Westworld, The Mandalorian) is playing Angela Bishop, "the first Native American Chief of Police in her town in upstate New York." She appears to be in a romantic relationship with Dexter/Jim Lindsay.
- Jack Alcott (The Good Lord Bird, The Blacklist) will play Harrison Morgan, Dexter's teenage son who seeks him out in Minnesota.
- Alano Miller (Sylvie’s Love) plays Logan, "a sergeant for the Iron Lake Police Department and the assistant wrestling coach for the local high school."
- Johnny Sequoyah (Believe, Among Ravens) plays Audrey, Angela Bishop's "brash and opinionated teenage daughter."
- Michael Cyril Creighton (Billions, The Post) will play Fred Jr., a fixture in the town of Iron lake and the proprietor of Fred’s Fish & Game.
- Jamie Chung (Lovecraft Country) is set to play a famous Los Angeles-based podcaster specializing in true crime stories.
- Oscar Wahlberg (Manchester by the Sea) has been cast to play Zach, the Iron Lake High School's wrestling team captain and popular kid with connections to the school's in-crowd.
What has Hall said about the project? "I've been approached, unofficially, many times in the streets by people who have ideas. But... I think there have been probably, before this, three legitimate ideas or concepts of what we might do and none of them felt right," Hall told ET in January. "This one, a lot of it has to do with time passed... It was a combination of the scripts and the timing. I always thought maybe the time will reveal itself when it's the right time to do it and it did. And I'm excited. I was just visiting the sets the other day and it's real. It's really happening."
The show's original ending was met with mixed reactions from viewers -- something Hall acknowledges now with the benefit of hindsight, and says will be addressed in the revival.
"From a story standpoint [and] from a character standpoint, it made sense to me what he did. But I certainly can appreciate why it left a majority of the viewers feeling left out in the cold or gypped or frustrated because he literally didn't say anything at the end," Hall acknowledged. "He had been talking to us the whole time and he just stared at the camera and it was over. He put his sister in the ocean. What the hell was that?"
"The appetite for the reboot is in a way facilitated by the fact that it was a less than satisfying ending for people," Hall added. "I want to find out what happened to the guy just as much as everybody else."
Speaking with ET in October, Hall explained that the revival has a much different dynamic.
"The story hinges on the relationship between Dexter and his son. And his son is now a full-grown young man -- or almost [a] young man," Hall said, explaining why it was important to have so much time between the original series and the revival. "Ultimately we had to wait for Harrison to grow up and I think taking this much time away allows the return to the character feel like a bit of a surprise, but it hasn’t been so much time that people have completely put it so far in the rearview that they don’t even remember it."
Hall also reflected on how it felt getting back into the mindset of the famous serial killer.
"It was really wild. I didn’t know really what to expect but I found that once I showed up and started shooting that he was still very, very much alive," Hall recalled. "He was still very familiar. He is obviously in a completely different context [and] has come a long way from where we left him but he was still very available to me, which was reassuring and creepy."
Can I watch the original series anywhere? As it is a Showtime original series, Dexter is available for streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, but only with the Showtime add-on package. Although with eight seasons and 98 total episodes, there's a lot of content to make it worth your while.
Check out the video below for more on the upcoming Dexter revival.
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