Showtime Wouldn't Let Dexter Die—Was Original Idea Better?

Series producer John Goldwyn reveals, "When we told [Showtime] the arc for the last season, they just said, 'Just to be clear, he's going to live.'"

It turns out viewers weren't the only ones disappointed with Dexter's series finale; the writers were, too!

In the Showtime hit's final scene, it's revealed that Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) made it out of his eight-season-long killing spree alive, and is now living in seclusion as a logger. In our Anti-Hero series finale debate, more than 60 percent of Dexter fans believed Dexter should've died in the end. Now, in an interview with Vulture, series producer John Goldwyn reveals that Showtime wouldn't let the infamous serial killer die at the end of the series.

"They won't let us kill him," Goldwyn explained. "Showtime was very clear about that. When we told them the arc for the last season, they just said, 'Just to be clear, he's going to live.'"

Goldwyn continued, "There were a lot of endings discussed because it was a very interesting problem to solve, to bring it to a close. People have a relationship with Dexter, even if it doesn't have the size and the ferocity of the fan base for Breaking Bad. But it has a very core loyal following." (Showtime had no comment regarding Goldwyn's claim.)

That loyal following's response to Dexter's ending? Not great, with 67 percent of voters saying they "loathed" the finale in our TV Finale Hall of Fame (And Shame) gallery. 

And it seems the series' proposed original ending may have made fans happier; E! News asked former Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips, who left the series in late 2009 after the beloved Trinity (John Lithgow) season, to share his vision of how Dexter Morgan's journey would've ended. Prepare to feel chills, people!

In Phillips' vision, which he never revealed to Showtime, Dexter would have died at the very end in poignant fashion: "In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream.' And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, 'No, it's not a dream.' Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery," Phillips explained. "And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed...All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.

"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," Phillips continued. "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."

And though he would've ended the series with Dexter's death, Phillips, who now serves as showrunner on Nurse Jackie, said, "I think they did a good job with the final episode."