Dexter Showrunner Says Revival Won’t Undo Anything, But Will Try to Make Things Right

With a revival of Dexter on the way, showrunner Clyde Phillips has answered some questions about how it will handle that, shall we say, “polarizing” series finale. As previously reported, Showtime has ordered a revival of the hit serial killer thriller and Phillips spoke with THR’s Top 5 Podcast about what to expect.

“We basically get to start from scratch,” Phillips said about the revival (per TV Line), thanks to the hefty gap between the end of the first series and now. “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. 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.”

He did make it clear that the events of the finale, which infamously saw Dexter get on his boat after his sister Debra dies and pilot it into a hurricane only to turn up in Oregon as a literal lumberjack, will not be undone. “We’re not undoing anything,” he said. “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.”

That said, he addressed the negative reaction that the series finale — which even star Michael C. Hall was not a big fan of, by saying, “This is an opportunity to make that right. But that’s not why we’re doing it.”

Production is expected to start this winter with a fall 2021 launch planned.