The dark passenger is back.
Michael C. Hall returns as serial killer Dexter in “Dexter: Resurrection” — and yes, he knows “it’s a trip.”
“We hoped we were onto something. We hoped we’d hit the little bullseye that we were trying to hit,” Hall, 54, exclusively told The Post about the original “Dexter,” which first premiered in 2006,
“I mean, nobody starts something and imagines 20 years down the road that they’ll still be spending time with the character, and the world and that world will be expanding.”
Premiering Friday, July 11 on Paramount+ and Sunday, July 13 at 8 p.m. on Showtime, “Dexter: Resurrection” is the fourth show in the “Dexter” franchise.
The original “Dexter” aired on Showtime for eight seasons from 2006 to 2013, following Dexter (Hall), a serial killer whose cop father, Harry (James Remar), taught him to channel his urges into targeting fellow killers.
By day, Dexter worked for the Miami police, with colleagues such as Angel Batista (David Zayas). By night, he did his own brand of bloody vigilante justice.
The show had the spinoff “Dexter: New Blood” in 2021, which introduced Dexter to his troubled estranged son, Harrison (Jack Alcott). The third spinoff, “Dexter: Original Sin,” in 2024 followed Dexter’s origins as a young man, starring Patrick Gibson in the title role.
Now, “Dexter: Resurrection” follows Dexter as he recovers from a near-death experience, sees Harrison in New York City, and has an uneasy reunion with Batista, who has cottoned on to the fact that there’s more to Dexter than meets the eye.
“Being on set with some of the original cast members like David Zayas, James Remar, and other people who made cameos….we never stop shaking our heads, kind of amazed that we have real, almost 20-year-old memories of interacting as the characters were playing,” Hall told The Post.
During his nearly twenty years of playing the character, the Emmy-nominated actor went through many ups and downs in life, including a marriage and divorce to original co-star Jennifer Carpenter (who isn’t in “Resurrection”) and a cancer battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he recovered from.
About beating cancer while playing Dexter, the “Six Feet Under” actor said, “I think it’s just enriched my sense of gratitude for my life – for my life as an actor, for the chance to spend time with collaborators who I have a sort of long-standing, tight relationship with. One of the keys to my sense of gratitude is being able to play pretend for a living.”
Similar to “Game of Thrones,” and “Lost,” the original “Dexter” had a controversial ending that was unpopular among fans at the time. (It ended with Dexter not dying or going to prison, but rather randomly retreating into the wilderness and becoming a lumberjack).
“I don’t think it’s a fan’s job to be fair. I totally get people’s frustration with how that season ended. I think it made narrative sense for the character to put himself into this self-imposed exile. Maybe the way it happened could have been better executed,” Hall admitted. “But I think no matter what we did, it would have been frustrating for people. The thing is, no matter how you feel about all that, it’s what led us to now, and what sort of allows for the show to be what it is now.”
He quipped, “So hopefully people will be able to lick the wounds created by the past, and enjoy the present.”
