“We’re not doing it as if it’s Dexter season 9.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long has thisDexterrevival been in the works?
CLYDE PHILLIPS:Since it ended?
Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter in ‘Dexter: New Blood’.Seacia Pavao/SHOWTIME
I left after the fourth season.
He’d say, “I’m not sure, but I’m not closing the door.”
And then somebody would send me that interview and I’d call him and we’d talk about it.
Michael C. Hall on the set of EW’s October 2021 ‘Dexter: New Blood’ cover shoot.Michael Muller for EW
They tried a script with the showrunner who took my place, but that didn’t work out.
And part of it had to do with Michael just feeling it was the right time.
Why did you leave after season 4?
Michael C. Hall and Clancy Brown in ‘Dexter: New Blood’.Seacia Pavao/SHOWTIME
I was working my ass off to pay for a lifestyle I wasn’t living.
Talk about what it was like to takeDexterto Comic-Con back in the day.
I mean,Iron Mangets Hall H. It’s 8,000 people.
Jack Alcott and Michael C. Hall in ‘Dexter: New Blood’.Seacia Pavao/SHOWTIME
It was a privilege.
I grew up in Dorchester, which is like the poorest neighborhood in Boston.
To have gotten to the point where I was doing that?
I was the luckiest guy in the world.
Did you ever wonder why Michael became such a sex symbol?
I mean, he played a serial killer.
Well, he’s a sexy guy.
It really was no wonder.
It wasn’t even a surprise.
He’s so smart, and he’s got a great soul.
You left, but are you the punch in to maintain some kind of ownership of the show?
I watched the show out of habit.
I would call my producer, who stayed with the show.
I would watch every Sunday night, then call him up and fire him again and again.
I knew most of the writers.
They were having their struggles.
What were your thoughts about the final season?
The show went off the rails.
The show was untethered, and the character was untethered.
I wasn’t in the room, so I can’t really criticize anybody for that.
Many factors go into what happens between executive producers and online grid influence.
But as an audience member with a vested interest, I thought the show lost its way.
I mean, there were videos of people watching the final episode and yelling at their television.
Had the series finale gone differently, would there be aDexter: New Blood?
Well, if Dexter had died in the final season, we wouldn’t be here.
Would you have killed him?
My personal ending for the show was that he was going to be executed for his crimes.
He’s lying on the table and outside the window are all the people he’s killed.
That was just in my own head.
I never pitched that to anybody.
So is this a do-over?
I wouldn’t call it that.
We call it a revival.
We’re not doing it as if it’sDexterseason 9.
We’re acknowledging that almost a decade has passed.
We were in a fictional town in upstate New York called Iron Lake.
We actually shot exteriors in Shelburne Falls, which is in western Massachusetts.
It was important to show the same old Dexter.
We’re just not picking up where we left off.
We’re acknowledging where we are.
We’ve been chasing the weather since the beginning.
We started shooting at the end of January on a frozen lake.
An explanation of who Dexter is?
It’s explained basically in his head and in his conscience.
People will be pretty familiar pretty quickly.
Those questions get asked and answered.
So is there one big baddie this season?
It’s traditional for the show to have what we call the big bad.
What can we expect to happen between Dexter and his son Harrison, played byJack Alcott?
Harrison feels abandoned and has felt the pain of that every day.
It’s a big, long, difficult bridge to cross for both of them.
What if this revival is so good that Showtime asks for another season?
I can’t tell you how it ends!
Dexter: New Bloodpremieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
