Look up "most hated series finales of all time," and Dexter's 2013 disaster rides high on everyone's list. Now, though, our once-beloved vigilante gets another crack at things with a new twist.
Star Michael C. Hall doesn't mince words when he talks about the ending of Dexter's original eight-season run.
“Let’s be real: people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying,” he recently told The Daily Beast, “and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling. I include myself in the group of people that wondered, ‘What the hell happened to that guy?’ So I’m excited to step back into it. I’ve never had that experience of playing a character this many years on.”
"Unsatisfying" doesn't begin to cover it, and the memory still leaves a bitter taste in most fans' mouths. Dexter -- a whole serial killer -- sailed into a hurricane, destroyed his boat but somehow survived, and made a new life in the Pacific Northwest as an anonymous lumberjack.
Yet the upcoming revival promises to draw viewers back in with a new story and a ten-episode "ninth" season. Dexter's new arc begins in real-time, not immediately after the original 2013 finale. Showrunners promise, though, that the show won't attempt to change any events that played out in the past.
Clancy Brown (Carnivale, Billions) will play Dexter's latest foe, Kurt Caldwell, the unofficial mayor of Iron Lake. We presume Dexter's lumberjack gig is in or the small Oregon town.
Per the official character description, Kurt “realized the American dream by going from driving big rigs, just like his father did, to now owning several trucks and the local truck stop. 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.”
There have been several Dexter revival ideas pitched over the years, but Hall believes the time is finally right to revisit the character -- and that this is the right story.
“The story that’s being told is worth telling in a way that other proposals [weren’t],” Hall told TVLine. “And I think enough time has passed where it’s become intriguing in a way that it wasn’t before.”
Original executive producer Clyde Phillips is also back as showrunner for the revival and reportedly views the new series as “a great opportunity to write a second finale.”
