‘Dexter’ is Returning to Showtime for One Last Season

Published on November 18, 2020

Dexter is returning to Showtime. After a disastrous and almost universally disliked series finale, Michael C. Hall will return to play the killer in a new chapter of the series. Hall isn’t the original teammate returning for another round, either. The original showrunner, Clyde Phillips, and one of the original directors, Marcos Siega, are back. Siega will direct six episodes in the continuation. 

Dexter won’t be back for good, though. It’s a 10-episode limited series. The show, of course, followed a blood-spatter expert for the Miami police department who’s also a serial killer. Dexter (the limited series) will debut next year. 

Showtime reuniting the original creatives for the series is promising. As Phillips has confirmed before, he won’t betray what came before, but he will provide a new, hopefully more satisfying ending for fans. “We’re not going to betray the audience and say, ‘Whoops, that was all a dream. What happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years,’” he’s said. “10 years, or however many years, have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage. In so far as the ending of the show, this will have no resemblance to how the original finale was. It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show, and Showtime was very gracious about that.”

When the original showrunner exited the series, that’s around when it started going downhill. Perhaps, like star Michael C. Hall, he wasn’t satisfied by the ending. He wants to get it right, though. “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,” said Gary Levine, who’s one of the Presidents of Entertainment at Showtime. “We would only revisit this unique character if we could find a creative take that was truly worthy of the brilliant, original series. Well, I am happy to report that Clyde Phillips and Michael C. Hall have found it, and we can’t wait to shoot it and show it to the world!”

Dexter’s story ended on a sour note. He was a logger in Oregon, sporting a big bushy beard and all. It’s arguably one of the most disliked series finales in recent years. According to Phillips, the new season will pick up shortly after the events of season eight and bring Dexter back home to Miami, Florida. For about a good four or five seasons, Dexter had an entertaining run. It was dark fun with some fine drama and, best of all, a charming and frightening performance from Michael C. Hall.

For the last five years, there was talk of a Dexter reboot. The well-liked hit was run into the ground by the network. Most of Showtime’s hit shows go on for far too long and don’t know when to end. Dexter was an attention-grabbing concept, which it lived up to for years, but the story started running in circles after the beloved Jon Lithgow season. Despite the serious dip in quality and the unfortunate ending, people are excited about a new ending of Dexter. It was a good character with a great performance from Hall, who should get the chance to end things on a better note with one of his most iconic roles. 

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Jack Giroux is a Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in Los Angeles, he is an entertainment journalist who's previously written for Thrillist, Slash Film, Film School Rejects, and The Film Stage.

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