Dexter Revival Gets a Telling New Teaser: He’s Back to Murdering

Dexter Revival Gets a Telling New Teaser

If there’s one thing we know about Dexter’s true nature, it’s that he likes to murder. Showtime has released a brief teaser for the upcoming Dexter revival, and it offers both a nod to the show’s much-maligned original lumberjack ending and a promise of what’s to come. And what’s to come is probably going to be a lot of murdering.

The teaser is just footage of an ax hitting a tree stump, with a fire burning in the background. In voiceover, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) says, “There really is nothing like getting back to nature…my nature.”

Again, he means murder. Sure, Dexter only kills people who are very bad, but we still can’t forget that this man is a serial killer we all decided to love. Things were weird in 2006, and they may be even weirder now!

Our biggest question (well, one of them) is whether or not this serial killer really has just been a lumberjack ever since the show first ended in 2013. We thought not based on showrunner Clyde Phillips saying the new series will have “no resemblance” to the original finale, but somebody out here is still chopping wood.

Here’s what we know so far.

How Many Episodes?

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. Production is slated to begin in early 2021 and the show will hopefully air later that same year.

This Is Not Dexter Season 9

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.”

This Is Not a Reaction to the Series Finale

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.”

But It’s Not an Erasure of the Finale, Either

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.”

Will Deb Be Back?

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 said, refusing to answer the question directly.

Will Phillips’ Finale Idea Happen?

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.”

Where Will the Show Be Set?

Dexter was sort of ironically set in Miami the first time around, and in the finale the character had relocated to Oregon. Philips couldn’t say where exactly the new season will be set, but he could tease that “it won’t be Miami.” Phillips told TV Insider that the revival will find Dexter “somewhere we’ve never seen him before.” According to some of the official character descriptions, the season will be set in the small town of Iron Lake, although it’s unclear if it’s a fictional town, or what state it is set in.

Will Dexter Still Be in Law Enforcement?

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. While not much is known about the plot itself, Phillips assured fans that Dexter’s efforts to escape his life of murder and bloodlust isn’t something he’s able to sustain. “Dexter always has what we call ‘the dark passenger’ living inside him,” the showrunner said. “He is more grounded than he’s ever been, but that dark passenger is a voice he cannot deny. This is Dexter. People are going to die.”

And the first teaser hints that Dexter is definitely back to his murderous ways. “There really is nothing like getting back to nature. My nature,” he says in the 10-second clip.