‘Dexter’: Fans Float Story Ideas After Revival Announcement
After nearly 10 years, it’s finally happening: Dexter is coming back to television. The hit Showtime drama will return in 2021 with a limited series that will (hopefully) make up for what fans have called a bleak and depressing ending.
Though details are still limited, fans have been floating potential storylines and ideas on social media. Find more on the show and what fans would like to see, below.
What is ‘Dexter’ about and how did it end?
Over the course of eight seasons, Dexter followed the life of Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter analyst for a police department in Miami who is also a serial killer. His targets are criminals who have evaded justice — a “code” his father Harry taught him to help Dexter control the murderous impulses he had as a child.
Dexter kills dozens of people throughout the show, but he never gets caught. He does suffer big blows over the seasons, though, including the deaths of his wife Rita and his sister Debra. The two were both killed at the hands of murderers that Dexter had been chasing.
Realizing the harm he has caused so many people in the finale, he isolates himself, sending his son Harrison away to live with his girlfriend Hannah. He then takes his boat and drives it out into the eye of a hurricane nearing Miami, making it seem like he’s going to kill himself. However, viewers learned that he was just faking his death.
In the closing of the finale, it’s revealed that Dexter left Miami and moved to Oregon, where he has found work as a lumberjack. Alone in his cabin, he gives a chilling look at the camera before the screen goes black.
A ‘Dexter’ revival is on the way
Showtime announced on Oct. 15 that Dexter will return in the fall of 2021 with a 10-episode run. Several original cast and crew members are on board with the project, including Michael C. Hall and showrunner Clyde Phillips, who worked on seasons one through four.
As the news of the revival swirled, Dexter fans took to websites such as Reddit to speculate on potential plot lines. One major angle is that the revival will focus on Dexter’s new life in Oregon, possibly with Debra taking over Harry’s role as Dexter’s subconscious. But there was no one consensus on the exact storyline.
Some Redditors said that Dexter will become so overrun with guilt over Debra’s death that he will begin killing again, earning the attention of this former police department due to how strangely similar the killings are. But others argued that Dexter is a changed man (though some think he’ll be tracked down by Angel Batista and/or Joey Quinn after they discover his ruse.)
There’s also a theory that the show will be centered around Harrison now that he’s older and will follow him as he’s either “hunting or hunted by Dexter.” But that theory has also faced some push back, with one Redditor saying Harrison is still “too young.”
What won’t happen in the Dexter revival
Even though details of the revival are scarce, we know at least one thing to expect: the show won’t be picking up exactly where it left off.
“We want this to not be Dexter season 9,” Phillips said on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast, TV’s Top 5. “Ten years have passed – or however many years have passed by the time this will air – and the show will reflect that time passage. Insofar 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, and Showtime was very gracious about that.”
As we await the arrival of the revival, stay tuned to Showbiz Cheat Sheet for future Dexter updates.
