Everything you need to know as Dexter makes his comeback.
So far we’ve only had a few cast announcements and the odd teaser for the much-anticipated return of crime drama Dexter – until now.
San Diego Comic-Con 2021 did not disappoint for fans of the vigilante serial killer, with the Dexter panel not only revealing a release date and full-length trailer, but also a new name for the ninth season.
Titled Dexter: New Blood, the revival’s trailer shows Dex assuming a new alias as a worker at a local hunting store, seeking therapy to control his bloodlust and forever fearful that someone could discover his true identity.
However, in true Dexter fashion it’s not long before the knives are out – quite literally. There are a worrying number of shots of Dex looking at blades, culminating in a blood spatter in the snow…
Dexter will clearly be reuniting with the Dark Passenger – but there will be reunions all around, as not only are star Michael C. Hall and original showrunner Clyde Phillips returning, but it has also been revealed that John Lithgow and Jennifer Carpenter will be bringing their fan-favourite characters back from the dead.
The duo played Trinity Killer and Debra Morgan respectively, who both met grisly ends during the show’s original eight-season run, so their reappearance will be part of flashback scenes in the ten-episode revival.
Here’s hoping season nine can make up for the much-derided original ending. Read on for everything you need to know about Dexter: New Blood.
When will Dexter season 9 air?
Vigilante killer Dexter will be back on Sunday 7th November 2021.
The release date was announced at Comic-Con along with a sneak peek trailer and season nine’s title of Dexter: New Blood.
However, it is yet to be confirmed if the revival will air in the UK on the same day as the US, or if UK fans will have to wait a little longer to see the serial killer’s much-anticipated return.
Will Dexter be available in the UK?
It’s not yet clear if Dexter will screen in the UK, but it had a strong fan base when it screened on FX UK channel (the first two seasons aired on Channel 5). FX UK later became FOX UK, which has since shut down entirely – though a number of shows previously broadcast on the channel (including The Walking Dead) are now streaming via Star on Disney Plus, so this could be an option for the Dexter revival.
If you want to revisit Dexter, or even watch it for the first time, Dexter seasons 1-8 are screening on Netflix.
Dexter season 9 cast
Crucially, Michael C Hall will reprise his role as Dexter Morgan, the part he played over eight seasons and 96 episodes between 2006-2013 for US network Showtime.
He responded “never say never” to a question in 2018 about whether or not he’d ever play the serial killer again, but maintained he would only do it if it was fresh, interesting and “worth doing”.
Veteran actor Clancy Brown will play a brand new villain in the new series, Kurt Caldwell, who is described as the unofficial mayor of the small town of Iron Lake. Brown’s previous credits include roles in The Shawshank Redemption and Billions.
In January 2021, Deadline announced new casting details for the series. Julia Jones, who appeared in the fourth episode of The Mandalorian season one, will portray Angela Bishop, the first Native American Chief of Police in the upstate New York town. Her rebellious daughter Audrey will be played by Believe’s Johnny Sequoyah.
Also joining the cast are Alano Miller as an Iron Lake Police Department sergeant who also doubles up as the assistant wrestling coach for the local high school, and Jack Alcott as the mysterious Randall – all we know about him at this stage is that he has a “meaningful encounter” with Dexter.
And later in January, another casting announcement was made – with The Morning Show star David Magidoff set to star as Teddy, a good-natured cop who has been working in Iron Lake for just two weeks and is a little scared of his boss.
Meanwhile, Spotlight star Michael Cyril Creighton will also have a recurring role in the series, appearing in seven episodes as Fred Jr, an affable shop owner who is a well-known face around Iron Lake.
Then in February 2021, two more stars were cast in recurring roles, with Lovecraft Country’s Jamie Chung and Manchester on the Sea’s Oscar Wahlberg both signing up for the new series.
Ching has been cast as Molly, who is described as a famous true-crime podcaster from LA, while Wahlberg will star as Zach, who is the captain of the Iron Lake High School wrestling team and has a reputation as something of a bully.
!["Clancy]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/01/GettyImages-861006346-099d23a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"dexter-revival-clancy-brown-villain\"")
However, there will be some returning faces from the first eight seasons – including none other than John Lithgow, who played iconic season four villain the Trinity Killer.
Given that the Trinity Killer was rather brutally murdered by Dexter in the season four finale, Lithgow later confirmed that his appearance would indeed be through a flashback – and a rather brief one at that, as the actor revealed that he was only on set for “one afternoon”.
However, Lithgow told Variety that it was “just wonderful to rejoin that gang” and hinted that we could see more familiar faces as “there are all sorts of wonderful surprises and callbacks from the first few seasons.”
He wasn’t wrong, as Dexter’s foster sister Debra Morgan will also be brought back from the dead as long-term cast member Jennifer Carpenter is also set to return.
It is expected that Carpenter will appear in the same flashback scene as Lithgow, as the Trinity Killer actor told Variety that he rejoined both her and Hall while filming his return.
One of Trinity Killer’s most famous victims will not be reappearing, however, with actress Julie Benz ruling out a return as Dexter’s wife Rita Morgan even as a ghost.
“I think Dexter has moved way past Rita,” Benz told TVLine. “It doesn’t make sense for her to be on his mind as a ghost because she was only his cover. He didn’t internalize her, so there are no plans for Rita to show up.
“I would obviously do it in a heartbeat if they asked. But I’ve always said Rita shouldn’t make an appearance in his head because she didn’t know the real him. She didn’t know the Dark Passenger.”
The involvement of showrunner Clyde Phillips is clearly crucial to Hall’s return. He was executive producer on the first four seasons of the show, during which time it was nominated for three Emmy nominations and four Writers Guild Award nominations for best drama series.
Hall himself had five straight lead actor Emmy Award nominations and won a Golden Globe for the role in 2010.
Showtime Entertainment president Gary Levine said: “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 season 9 trailer
After several chilling teasers, Showtime finally released a full-length trailer at San Diego Comic-Con 2021. The sneak peek starts with Dexter in therapy of all places, seemingly attempting to resist his homicidal tendencies. But by the end of the trailer it becomes clear the serial killer is slipping back into his old ways…
The first season nine footage from Showtime was an ominous teaser clip, in which the titular serial killer talks over an icy shot of an axe stuck in a tree stump as a fire burns in the distance. “There really is nothing like getting back to nature,” he says. “My nature.”
Nature is calling. #Dexter pic.twitter.com/tX92KWHZLI
— Dexter on Showtime (@SHO_Dexter) April 22, 2021
A few days later, Showtime released a longer teaser, showing the same snowy scene before zooming out and revealing Dexter’s worried-looking reflection in the window, as one of his victims writhes around in a body bag behind him. As Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood plays in the background, Dexter turns to camera and smiles. Creepy stuff!
He’s just a soul whose intentions are good.
— SHOWTIME (@Showtime) April 29, 2021
See what #Dexter has been up to when he comes home to SHOWTIME this Fall. pic.twitter.com/Bh8UC83qn0
A third teaser highlighted the new small town setting of the series, where Dexter is on good terms with the locals who are oblivious to his serial killer past. But they might not be for much longer, as Dexter perhaps stares a bit too long at a knife in a shop window…
Dexter season nine takes place in the fictional snowy town of Iron Lake in upstate New York, but writer Warren Hsu Leonard posted on Twitter that he “basically pictured him running around in my hometown of Penobscot, ME.”
Dexter season 9 spoilers
Phillips says that season nine will feature Dexter’s return from the wilderness or wherever he’s been in the intervening years since the season eight finale in 2013.
We last saw Dexter leaving Miami behind after faking his suicide, heading to the forests of Oregon to become, of all things, a lumberjack.
Details of the new series’ plot are firmly under wraps, but casting news revealed it would be at least partially set in Iron Lake, a small town in upstate New York, hinting that Dexter may have crawled out of the woodwork to face a new major villain played by Clancy Brown.
Returning cast member John Lithgow described the revival as a “reimagination” that is largely separate from the original eight-season show.
“They don’t take it into a different era, but it’s in a different part of the world, a different part of the country, and a whole new cast of characters,” he told Variety.
Unsurprisingly it seems that Dex has taken on a new name, but it is perhaps surprising to see that he now works at a local fish and game store. Meet new protagonist and definitely not an ex-serial killer Jim Lindsay – which is likely a reference to Darkly Dreaming Dexter author Jeff Lindsay:
Hello, D̶e̶x̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶M̶o̶r̶g̶a̶n̶ Jim Lindsay. pic.twitter.com/iOcArYfvxq
— Dexter on Showtime (@SHO_Dexter) May 25, 2021
Many fans felt let down by the original season eight ending and Phillips, who left the show after season four, said he would have ended the series with Dexter’s execution, being watched by all his previous victims (hinting at what may in fact lie ahead of Dexter at the end of this revival season?).
But that would have been the final show and at least the widely derided but open-ended conclusion paved the way for Dexter’s return.
!["Dexter]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/10/dexter-lumberjack-1-bc3ca9a.jpg?quality=90&crop=11px%2C14px%2C1387px%2C924px&resize=620%2C413" "\"dexter-lumberjack")
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Hall recently said, “Let’s be real: people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying. 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.”
Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter: “We basically do get to start from scratch. … Ten years, or however many years, have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage. 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.”
That didn’t mean the show was going to “undo” what happened in season eight; just make it right with Dexter fans – and there is the possibility that it may restore its standing with the fans who were dismayed when he walked off into the bush in season eight.
Who is directing Dexter?
In November, the Hollywood Reporter revealed that Marcos Siega would direct six of the 10 episodes. He directed nine episodes of the original show, two of which Phillips wrote and has since collaborated with the showrunner on other projects. He has also directed episodes of True Blood, Veronica Mars, Blindspot and The Hollowing as well as the pilot for The CW series Batwoman.
Siega’s latest job has been directing Kaley Cuoco’s thriller series The Flight Attendant.
Check out what else is on with our TV Guide, or visit our Drama hub for more news and features.