Michael C. Hall hopes Dexter revival makes up for the unsatisfying finale

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It was announced in October that Showtime would be bringing Dexter back for a new ten-part limited-series, which came as a welcome surprise for many fans, particularly those who were disappointed by the series finale back in 2013. "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, Co-President of Entertainment at Showtime, in a statement. "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."

You'd be hard-pressed to find many Dexter fans who actively enjoyed the series finale, and that includes Dexter himself. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Michael C. Hall said that he hopes the upcoming revival will make up for the previous finale. Hall explained that producers have approached him several times since Dexter concluded about a possible revival, but he didn't spark to the concept until their latest proposal.

Yeah. It’s a conversation that’s been ongoing, and different possibilities have emerged over the years. I think in this case, the story that’s being told is worth telling in a way that other proposals didn’t, and I think enough time has passed where it’s become intriguing in a way that it wasn’t before. And 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.

As far as whether the criticisms of the Dexter series finale are fair, Michael C. Hall added, "A criticism that speaks to someone’s experience is warranted. I certainly thought it was justifiable for Dexter to do what he did. I think some of the criticisms were about that, and some of the criticisms weren’t so much about the “what” as they were about the “how,” and those were valid too. We certainly do live in an era where the bar is very high as far as the simultaneous surprise, satisfaction, and closure that should go along with a series finale." Hall already has an extremely satisfying series finale under his belt with Six Feet Under, but I can only keep my fingers crossed that the Dexter revival will at least improve on the infamous lumber jack ending of the original series.