Dexter: Resurrection: Michael C. Hall on Revisiting His Iconic Role

Dexter was a risky proposition in 2006. When Showtime presented the pilot to the Television Critics Association that year, no one was prepared for how it might be received. While the cast and producers believed the series about a serial killer was something special, they were still a bit anxious.

“We were in the green room with then-chairman of Showtime Matt Blank. He was a little nervous about the show. He didn’t quite know what we had. We weren’t sure what we had,” says Clyde Phillips (Nurse Jackie), Dexter’s executive producer, writer and eventual showrunner. Peeking out from backstage, he realized critics were so engrossed in the show that they weren’t even taking notes. “We could see them smiling and buzzing to each other. When we went out on the stage, it was a love fest.”

The series, created by James Manos Jr. (The Shield), was an immediate hit. It became Showtime’s most-watched original series and grew its audience through each of its eight seasons.

The show’s initial success surprised even its star, Michael C. Hall, who’d just finished a successful five-season run on Six Feet Under. He had no intention of joining another series but loved the pilot script so much, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to play Dexter Morgan.

“I felt like there was a decent chance we’d find a little niche audience,” Hall says. “But I had no inkling it would be so broadly appealing, or that the character would abide in the way he has.” A big part of Dexter’s appeal to Hall and to fans was his struggle to feel, process and understand human behavior while playing the part of an upstanding blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department.

James Remar (Black Lightning), cast as Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry, knew the show was unique when he read the original script because — as in real life — all the characters were flawed and harbored some degree of darkness.

“I think that [relatability] is the strength of the show — and the center of it is Michael C. Hall. I can’t imagine anyone else being Dexter,” Remar says.

Harry recognized early on that Dexter had developed a penchant and knack for homicide after witnessing his mother being brutally murdered by three drug dealers, so he gave his son a code to live and to slay by: Never kill innocent people, and don’t get caught.

Luckily for Dexter, a lot of his fellow serial killers made their way to Miami over the years, starting with his biological brother, who was season one’s villain, the “Ice Truck Killer” (Christian Camargo, See). Other memorable foes include the “Skinner” (Jesse Borrego, Vida), the “Doomsday Killer” (Colin Hanks, A Friend of the Family), the “Brain Surgeon” (Darri Ingólfsson, Mrs. Davis) and the “Trinity Killer” (John Lithgow, The Old Man).

Watch the exclusive interview with Michael C. Hall during the emmy cover shoot.

Despite its often gruesome subject matter (Dexter’s kill count reached around 150 in the original series alone), Phillips credits the show’s success to Hall’s ability to connect with the audience and convey Dexter’s secrets, vulnerability, and relatability through his voiceovers.

That vulnerability caused Dexter trouble several times throughout the show’s original run. Hall points to three trajectory-changing points in Dexter’s journey — not counting witnessing his mother’s death when he was a toddler.

“The first big thing I’d point to is the birth of his son — his humanity being evident in a flesh-and-blood being outside his own body,” Hall says. “Once his son came into the world, that fundamental line that Dexter drew between himself and the rest of the world and humanity became blurred.

The second pivotal moment is when, in spite of his having vanquished Trinity and killed him, Trinity killed [Dexter’s] wife — that’s the first big casualty of an innocent person dying, and it was because of his indulgence in this relationship with Trinity.

The third thing I’d point to is the loss of his sister.”

After burying his sister Debra’s (Jennifer Carpenter, 1923) body at sea in the 2013 series finale — still the biggest linear telecast of any Showtime original — Dexter abandoned his son and went into what Hall calls self-imposed exile.

In 2021, the character resurfaced in the limited series Dexter: New Blood, set 10 years later, when he’s found by his now-grown son, Harrison (Jack Alcott, The Good Lord Bird). Dexter hadn’t killed anyone in the intervening decade and had done his best to assimilate into small-town life.

“In those 10 years, to some degree he was on the run from himself,” Hall says. “He wasn’t apprehended or thrown in jail, but he locked himself up, because he felt like that’s what he deserved.”

New Blood became the most streamed Showtime original series until it was surpassed by the 2024 prequel, Dexter: Original Sin.

Premiering July 11, Dexter: Resurrection is a new 10-episode Showtime series positioned to claim the title. Considering New Blood ended with Dexter collapsing in the snow, apparently dead of a bullet fired by Harrison, this new chapter might come as a surprise.

But Phillips — who swears he believed Dexter was dead when writing the New Blood finale — offered fans a glimmer of hope by showing Dexter being rushed to a clinic in the pilot for Original Sin.

To read the rest of the story, pick up a copy of emmy magazine here.

This article originally appeared in its entirety in emmy magazine, issue #8, 2025, under the title “Making A Killing”