Last time we saw him, Dexter Morgan was a lumberjack, and that's not okay. So Michael C. Hall is just as happy as many people are that his character is getting a second chance.
The Showtime series Dexter, in which the actor played a vigilante serial killer who moonlights as a police blood spatter analyst, aired for eight seasons between 2006 and 2013. Most fans were not satisfied with the finale. Last October, Showtime announced it is revising the franchise for a limited, 10-episode series and that the actor would reprise his role.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, published on Thursday, Jan. 14, Hall discussed the Dexter revival. He also reiterated his understanding that fans did not like the 2013 ending.
"The appetite for the reboot is a way facilitated by the fact that it was a less than satisfying ending for people," the 49-year-old actor said. "I want to find out what happened to the guy just as much as everybody else."
The actor also said that while Dexter's actions in the final episode of the original series made sense to him from a story or character standpoint, he "certainly can appreciate why" a majority of the viewers felt "frustrated" by it.
"Because he literally didn't say anything at the end," Hall recalled about his character. "He had been talking to us the whole time and he just stared at the camera and it was over. He put his sister in the ocean. What the hell was that?"
Hall also acknowledged the fans' criticism in an interview with The Daily Beast earlier this month. "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," he told the outlet. "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."
Hall also said the Dexter reboot will "happen in real time, as if as much time has passed since the finale happened."
In October, original showrunner Clyde Phillips, who is also leading the reboot, said on THR's TV's Top 5 podcast, "We're 10 years later. 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."
Phillips also said, "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. But that's not why we're doing it. We're doing this because there's such a hunger for Dexter out there."
The de facto ninth Dexter season is set to begin production in Massachusetts in February and is expected to premiere as early as this fall.