‘Dexter: New Blood’: Were Other Cameos Planned? The Showrunner Addressed the Speculation
The finale of Dexter: New Blood aired on Sunday, Jan. 9, and was met with mixed reactions from fans. While some thought it was a “perfect” ending to the serial-killer vigilante series, others deemed it awful and debated whether the show should have even come back.
Other reactions are about what didn’t happen, like certain character returns. Though the show was set far away from Miami, there were cameos from various people, including David Zayas’ Angel Batista and John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer. Were there more returns planned than those that wound up showing up? Showrunner Clyde Phillips has opened up about his plans for the series.
‘Dexter: New Blood’ brought back the beloved anti-hero Dexter Morgan
Dexter: New Blood made its much-anticipated premiere on Showtime in November of 2021, more than eight years after Dexter faked his death and fled to the woods. The show found him living in Upstate New York, where he’d built a normal life as sales clerk Jim Lindsay. But a series of events left him exposed.
In the end, Dexter was preparing to go on the run after Iron Lake police connected him to a local murder and a string of Miami killings. But before he could flee, he was shot and killed by Harrison Morgan. The final scenes showed Harrison fleeing town with help from Angela Bishop after she staged Dexter’s death as an officer-involved shooting.
The ‘Dexter: New Blood’ cameos
Michael C. Hall, who played Dexter, was one of few original actors who appeared in Dexter: New Blood. While there were rumors of additional character returns, Phillips confirmed “there weren’t” any others planned than those that occurred.
“Anybody we wanted, we got,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
“We [had] Lithgow come back,” he said to Collider. “The way we got Lithgow is I just called him. He’s a friend of mine, so I called him. And he said, ‘Clyde, I’ll be there tomorrow, just say the word.’ Then David Zayas, who plays Batista.”
“… Again, you have to remember a lot of the characters from the first eight seasons are dead. So there’s not a lot of them that we could have brought back,” Phillips noted.
He added: “Batista was the most important one because of his relationship with LaGuerta and what he brings to … as you saw, what he brings to the finale, I thought, was really important. I didn’t want to just start throwing stuff and gimicking it up. You can cross that line. And I think we stayed on the dignified side of that line.”
Earlier, pretty much everyone from the original series confirmed they weren’t part of the revival, but many fans thought some of them were just being coy. C.S. Lee, who played Vince Masuka, specifically, was someone believed to be in the show after he made a cryptic post about Dexter on Instagram. However, he later clarified that his message meant “nothing specific.”
What’s next for the show
Although the revival has concluded that part of the story, there’s certainly room to continue following Harrison. Phillips told Collider he’s open to the idea of a spinoff but said it’s ultimately up to Showtime to make the decision.
“It is really Showtime’s call,” he said. “Speaking of calls, if they were to call me and say, ‘Look, this is a huge asset for Showtime.’ I think, and I underline the word think, I think Dexter is their number one asset. If they were to call me and say, ‘We want to do Harrison. Are you interested?’ Much like when they called me to say, ‘We want to reboot Dexter, and you’re the guy,’ I would drop everything to do it.”
“I mean, the show’s hugely successful for them this season,” he continued. “We’re going to be getting some big numbers in January and all the people that DVR-ing the show so they can binge it. We’re going to get a whole new set of numbers later in this month. I think that could well be determinative in Showtime’s decision. If they want to do it, again, I got a lot of stuff going on, and I’ll drop everything to do it.”
