Dexter Showrunner Says New Season ‘Not Undoing’ Finale, But Will Make Things ‘Right’

Photo: Showtime

In case you were hoping Showtime’s newly-announced Dexter revival would reveal the show’s much-loathed finale was merely a terrible dream, showrunner Clyde Phillips has some bad news for you. Not as bad as a serial killer on the loose, never brought to justice for his many, many, many crimes, but it does sound like the ten-episode limited series won’t be washing the taste of Lumberjack Dexter out of your mouth entirely. Instead, they’ll be giving you a whole new taste and a chance at a “second finale,” one that won’t undo the series’ end, but will hopefully make things “right” with regards to Dexter’s disappointing last episode. Whatever that means.

“We basically do get to start from scratch,” Phillips told the Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast, on their episode released Friday. “We want this to not be Dexter Season 9. Ten 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.”

Series star Michael C. Hall is obviously excited for a chance at a ‘second finale’ too, Phillips says, though the executive producer notes the chance to revisit the character and hopefully create an ending Hall found satisfying wasn’t the reason the reboot exists.

“Michael is certainly aware that the ending wasn’t well-received, and I believe he was not completely satisfied with it,” he says. “This is an opportunity to make that right, but that’s not why we’re doing it. We’re doing this because there is such a hunger for Dexter out there.”

And if you’re holding your breath for the return of Deb, go ahead and let that one go too. “We’re not undoing anything,” Phillips says, when asked about a possible return of Jennifer Carpenter’s ill-fated character. “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.” While Phillips couldn’t say much more than that, he did say the reboot is not set in Miami. If we end up with ten episodes of Dexter chopping wood in Oregon, so help us…