‘What if he didn't die?’: Why Michael C. Hall came back for ‘Dexter: Resurrection’

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Months after he took what he thought were his last gasps as Dexter Morgan, Michael C. Hall started to wonder: What if his murderous character didn’t die.

Adapted from Jeff Lindsay’s books, Hall, 54, played the vigilante serial killer for eight seasons from 2006 to 2013 before reviving the antihero in 2021 for a sequel series, Dexter: New Blood.

That instalment ended with Dexter being shot by his estranged son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), and presumably left for dead. But Hall said the ending left him thinking about Dexter and what it might have been like if the onetime blood-spatter analyst with Miami Metro had lived.

“It was a conversation I had with Marcos Siega, our producer and director, in which I posed that question: ‘What if he didn’t die?'” Hall says over Zoom. “I thought, ‘What if the bullet didn’t do him in? How would that change him? What storytelling opportunities would be afforded were he to survive that?'”

Of course renewed interest in Dexter (as new fans discovered the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning psychological thriller on streaming) turned New Blood into a guaranteed hit (after its debut, it became the most-watched show in Showtime history).

So it wasn’t long before a storyline was hatched for Dexter: Resurrection, a new sequel series from Showtime now streaming on Paramount+. The new episodes take place right after the end of New Blood and follow Dexter as he tracks his son down in New York City. While in the Big Apple, Dexter meets a well-heeled group of serial killers led by a billionaire venture capitalist played by Peter Dinklage. David Zayas reprises the role of Detective Angel Batista from the original, with Neil Patrick Harris, Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet, David Dastmalchian and Uma Thurman guest starring in the 10-episode continuation.

Original series showrunner Clyde Phillips (who also headed up last year’s prequel Dexter: Original Sin) is back as showrunner, with Hall producing alongside Siega, who also directs six episodes.

“I became increasingly compelled and excited by the idea that this gunshot to the chest, administered by his son, if it didn’t kill him, might be the thing that allowed him to put his past down and not be burdened by it in the same way,” Hall says. “He doesn’t forget it, but he’s able to stop lugging it around.”

One thing that doesn’t change about Dexter is the code passed down to him by his adoptive father (James Remar) — only evil-doers who have escaped punishment find themselves staring down the end of his blade.

Resurrection also serves to rewrite the ending of the original Dexter, which concluded with Hall’s character ditching Miami for life as a recluse in upstate New York after his sister Deb’s (Jennifer Carpenter) death.

With Original Sin getting greenlit for a second season, which stars Patrick Gibson as a younger version of the character and features Hall in a voice-over role, fans can expect to see plenty more of Dexter in the years to come.

“Maybe now he can get back to who he essentially is in a way that he hasn’t been able to do,” Hall muses.

On a recent weekday afternoon, Hall spoke more about Dexter’s return, the character’s enduring popularity and told us how good he’d be at cleaning up a real-life crime scene.

Dexter went off the air in 2013 and it was almost a decade before he returned in New Blood. What sparked the interest in bringing him back?

Time had passed. While narratively I thought Dexter’s self-imposed exile at the end of the (original) series probably made sense, I knew it wasn’t satisfying for fans and to a degree it wasn’t satisfying for me. I wanted to find out what had become of him, and I was interested in rejoining him in real time after this self-imposed exile and abstinence, so we took the plunge.

Were you looking for closure with the way New Blood concluded?

I suppose. I was definitely looking for closure to that chapter and I think that ending did serve to provide some necessary closure. The only way Dexter could be where he is now is for what happened to have happened. We shot that season as one big 10-hour movie. And we shot that scene within the first couple of weeks and so even (during) shooting New Blood, he was already dead in my mind. But, the idea of a character like Dexter getting a second chance at life is really interesting. He’s really interested in what life looks like; what the universe is telling him. That life isn’t finished with him yet, so he’s trying to step up and live a life that’s more authentically in line with who he fundamentally experiences himself to be. And that is, a killer and a father.

What can you tell us about the people Dexter is going to go up against in Resurrection? 

As Dexter says, ‘Only in New York.’ Dexter finding himself in New York makes it plausible that he would trip into an invitation to a dinner party thrown by a billionaire that invited other killers to the table. I think he’s never encountered such a concentrated gathering of darkness and potential victims, but at the same time he’s encountering people he initially thinks might be like-minded and peers and friends. So his desire for that kind of connection is exploited at a time that finds him with a buffet of victims. It’s an amazing ensemble that agreed to sign up and join us for this. It was very gratifying for us that we got people of that calibre to take the ride.

You’ve been playing Dexter for almost 20 years. How good would you be at cleaning up a crime scene?

Probably not that good. I’d be better at it for having spent the time I have doing this, but thankfully, what Dexter is up to is something I can only simulate in this fictional context. I’m thankful that I’m not compelled to do what he does.

He’s such a popular TV character. Why do people relate to Dexter?

He’s a man of remarkable capability and remarkable limitation at the same time. He has an undeniable resiliency about him and a sort of blind optimism in terms of his willingness to engage with his life. But I don’t know. We all seem to have some sort of darkness that we have to negotiate and I think people relish the chance to spend time with someone whose darkness is so formidable.

Dexter: Resurrection is now streaming on Paramount+.

mdaniell@postmedia.com