Michael C Hall has all but sided with the fans over their disappointment with the 2013 series finale of his hit series Dexter.
And the Golden Globe winner is getting another chance to wrap up the story of everyone’s favorite antihero.
He’s returning to portray the titular serial killer for a 10-episode limited series at Showtime, which picks up where the original show left off with its eighth and final season.
He’s baaack: Michael C Hall is returning to portray the titular serial killer in Dexter for a 10-episode limited series at Showtime, which picks up where the original show left off with its eighth and final season
The 49-year-old is reuniting with showrunner Clyde Phillips, who served as an executive producer on the show for the first four seasons.
They’re expected to begin production on the miniseries in early 2021, with a tentative premiere date of fall 2021.
Based on the 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, as well as other titles in the book series, the original show ran from 2006 to 2013.
It starred Hall as the titular Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, who moonlights as a vigilante, enacting his homicidal urges on murderers who escape justice from the law.
Dream team: The 49-year-old is reuniting with showrunner Clyde Phillips, who served as an executive producer on the show for the first four seasons (pictured in April, 2018)
Back to work: They’re expected to begin production on the miniseries in early 2021, with a tentative premiere date of fall 2021
Showtime Entertainment President Gary Levine said in a statement: ‘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.
‘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!’
[SPOILER] The final episode saw Dexter dump the body of his comatose adopted sister Deb (played by Jennifer Carpenter, 40, to whom Hall was married from 2008 to 2011) in the ocean, after sending his love interest Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) and son Harrison to live in Argentina.
Dexter subsequently faked his own death, starting over as a lumberjack in the solitude of Oregon’s wilderness, a move that felt out of character for the show’s loyal fans.
Showrunner Scott Buck defended the finale to Entertainment Weekly at the time: ‘Even if i don’t write an episode, I’m still in charge. I take full responsibility. We all work cohesively as a team.
‘If people think the final episode stood out, it’s probably because it’s been sitting in my mind for so long. It’s a difficult question to answer.’
Executive producer Sara Colleton added: ‘I try not to read any of the blogs because then I become paralyzed. If they knew how much we agonized internally about everything… if we then tried to factor in an assortment of opinions it would dilute the process.’
Antihero vibes: The original show starred Hall as the titular Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, who moonlights as a vigilante, enacting his homicidal urges on murderers who escape justice from the law
Story worth telling: A statement from Showtime read: ‘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!’
Failed finale: The divisive 2013 finale saw Dexter fake his own death, starting over as a lumberjack in the solitude of Oregon’s wilderness, a move that felt out of character for the show’s loyal fans
Hall later sympathized with the fans in 2014, while offering a diplomatic justification for his character’s journey.
He told IGN: ‘I honestly find it to be a pretty dark ending, and I think it upset a lot of people. Certainly, the shakiness of certain aspects of the eighth season maybe made that ending less palatable to people.
‘I don’t think people were ready to be told that, because they were already feeling a sense of ambivalence for the show. But the idea that he imprisons himself in a prison of his own making I think is fitting [for the character].’
The Six Feet Under star added: ‘It’s tricky. Sometimes I wish he’d offed himself, wish he’d died, wish Deb had shot him in that train compartment – of course, that would have made an eighth season difficult to do.’
Phillips also revealed after the finale that he’d planned to end the series with Dexter waking up on an execution table at a Florida penitentiary, with all his victims sitting in the gallery, watching him go out.
He told E! News: ‘That’s what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we’ve seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter’s execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies.
‘Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion.’
Although no plot details have been revealed for the upcoming limited series, perhaps Phillips will finally be able to kill off our protagonist.
Alternate ending: Phillips revealed after the finale that he’d planned to end the series with Dexter waking up on an execution table at a Florida penitentiary, with all his victims sitting in the gallery, watching him go out