Dexter Revival Bringing Back John Lithgow As Trinity Killer

Though Showtime’s Dexter would carry on for eight total seasons, for many viewers of the series it was its fourth season and John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer that marked the apex of the entire show. The producers of the series know that you loved and are bringing back Lithgow to Primetime Emmy winning role for the upcoming ninth season. Deadline reports that the actor will “make a short but decisive appearance” in the revival of the drama and may only film for a day or so. Fans will no doubt recall how frequently Michael C. Hall’s Dexter spoke to characters that weren’t actually there, giving Lithgow’s Arthur Mitchell a prime place to come back.

“A lot of it has to do with time passed,” series star Michael C. Hall previously teased to ET about returning to the series. “This is going to happen in real-time, as if as much time has passed since the finale happened. We kind of just got the creative band back together again. Clyde Phillips is back, who was the showrunner for the first four seasons, running the show. And Marcos Siega, who is one of the directors. He’s like, ‘We’re gonna shoot it like a long, 10-hour movie.’ It was a combination of the scripts and the timing. I always thought maybe the time will reveal itself when it’s the right time to do it and it did. And I’m excited. I was just visiting the sets the other day and it’s real. It’s really happening.”

Hall previously teased that production on the new season has just over a month left to film and that the first episode will premiere on Showtime this November (fall debuts previously being a staple of the early seasons of Dexter).

“We basically do get to start from scratch,” executive producer Clyde Phillips previously told THR. “We want this to not be Dexter season 9. 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.”

The new season will see Dexter going up against Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), who is a trucker-turned-successful businessman, and community leader in the upstate New York town of Iron Lake. According to rumors, Kurt will have a son who has some murderous predilections, which Kurt uses his wealth to clean up and conceal.

Dexter Season 9 will premiere this fall.