America's favorite serial killer is ready to slay this fall.
On Thursday, April 29, Showtime released an all-new teaser for the highly anticipated Dexter revival. In the just-released footage, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) appears to be enjoying a wintery view. However, as the window's reflection lets on, things are far more chilling inside.
We're, of course, talking about the victim wrapped in plastic wrap, which is a signature for the killer. Without saying a word, Dexter makes it clear that he's put his lumberjack life behind him and is back to his murderous antics.
While this is all very exciting to see, we are most excited that the teaser confirmed the revival's 2021 return. As the final scene notes, Dexter will return to Showtime "this fall."
Since it was announced that production would begin in early 2021, many were hoping that the new limited series would air later in the year. Thankfully, fans will be getting new Dexter episodes before the calendar turns. And, if you think about it, the fall really isn't that far away.
Excited yet?
Showtime is clearly gearing up for Dexter's return to TV as this new trailer comes a week after a brief teaser surfaced on social media. Although the footage just showed a glimpse of an ax hitting a tree stump and a fire burning, the voiceover was very telling.
Dexter was heard saying, "There really is nothing like getting back to nature...my nature."
Again, not a lot of information on what's in store for the revival. So, while we wait for more details, scroll through the images below to see what we do know so far.
The revival will be 10 episodes. Showrunner Clyde Phillips—who ran the first four seasons of the original series—wrote the script for the first and the last episode. It's scheduled to premiere Sunday, November 7 at 9 p.m. on Showtime.
Dexter was sort of iconically set in Miami the first time around, and in the finale the character had relocated to Oregon. Now, almost a decade later, Dexter is living in a town called Iron Lake in Upstate New York. He appears to be going by the name Jim Lindsay (which is close to the name of the author of the books the series was based on, Jeff Lindsay).
Phillips told THR that "We want this not to be Dexter season nine."
"We basically do get to start from scratch," he said. "I mean, 10 years have passed—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 and it's a great opportunity to write a second finale for a show."
Phillips acknowledged many people involved with the show—including Michael C. Hall—knew that lumberjack ending was not a fan fave.
"Michael certainly was aware that the ending wasn't well received and I believe that he was not completely satisfied with it and this is an opportunity to make that right," Philips said. "But that's not why we're doing it. We're doing this because there's such a hunger for Dexter out there."
The revival will not erase Dexter's turn as a lumberjack.
"We're 10 years later," Phillips said. "We're not undoing anything. We're not doing movie magic, we're not going to betray the audience to say 'That was all a dream,' or whatever it is. I mean, what happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years. This is now however many years later. So we're not undoing anything."
Dexter's adoptive sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) will still be dead, but Dexter's a show known for its ghosts.
"There is some flexibility for movie magic, and that's all I can say about it," Phillips previously said, refusing to answer the question directly. In August 2021, it was confirmed that Carpenter would be back as an imaginary presence in Dexter's life.
"As much as [Deb] is an internalized character for Dexter, I think [she] represents how far he's fallen… without a compass," Hall said about Deb's return. "I was so excited about Jennifer doing this because I knew she would be able to shape shift and come at Dexter from so many different places. And, of course, she did. And it was really fun to crack open our sense of [Dexter]'s internal landscape, because it's much more pyrotechnic and crazy than it used to be."
Speaking of movie magic, the only major returning guest star we know of so far is John Lithgow, which is baffling because the Trinity Killer is very dead. But Deadline reports that Lithgow will return for a brief appearance, so we're expecting a hallucination or perhaps a dream sequence.
It appears that the new series will feature mainly new side characters. Here's a breakdown of who to expect:
Jamie Chung plays a famous true-crime podcaster from LA who gets caught up in the show's central mystery.
Clancy Brown plays Kurt Caldwell, the villain and unofficial mayor of Iron Lake who owns the truck stop. He's a man of the people, but if you cross him or hurt anyone he cares, for "God help you."
Julia Jones plays Angela Bishop, Iron Lake's first Native American police chief. Johnny Sequoyah plays her daughter Audrey.
Alano Miller plays Logan, a police sergeant and assistant coach of the high school wrestling team.
David Magidoff plays Teddy, a new addition to the local police department.
Oscar Wahlberg plays Zach, the captain of the high school wrestling team.
Jack Alcott plays Randall, who has a meaningful encounter with Dexter.
Michael Cyril Creighton plays Fred Jr., owner of Fred's Fish & Game.
When the original finale aired, Phillips was interviewed by E! News' Kristin Dos Santos and revealed what his pitch for the series finale would have been. It involved Dexter being executed for his crimes while all of his victims (even the indirect ones) could be seen watching from the gallery. Understandably, Phillips couldn't say whether this ending would see the light of day in the revival.
"Everybody knows that quote," he said. "And then if I say none of it is in play, then they know something else is going to happen if they say all of it in play. Then, then they know that that's something's going to happen so I can't answer that. I can't talk about the finale of the show."
Phillips couldn't say for sure if Dexter's former job of blood splatter analyst for the Miami Police Department would come back into play, but he could say this: "We discuss it and we we do mess with it, we do change it up. I can't tell you in which ways."
The show will "look and feel different yet familiar," whatever that means.
Per the latest trailer, Dexter, who is living life under a different alias, does work for Fred's Fish & Game.
The Dexter revival is arriving on Showtime in fall 2021.