Dexter Star Michael C. Hall Confirms Fan Reaction to Original Finale Inspired the Revival

If you find yourself in a heated chat about the most controversial series finales to ever grace a television, more often than not, the finale of Dexter will appear in the conversation. As it turns out, the discourse surrounding the contentious finale was directly responsible for inspiring a revival years after the fact. During a virtual appearance during a Dexter: New Blood Comic-Con at Home appearance on Sunday, Dexter star Michael C. Hall admitted the response to the finale eventually drove he and the show’s creators back to try righting the ship.

“It was a huge part of it. I think the ending was mystifying at best to people, confounding, exasperating, frustrating, on down the line of negative adjectives,” Hall said during the panel. “I think this is a show that’s very important to all of us and the chance to revisit it and maybe in the process, redefine the sense of the show’s ending and the sense of the show’s legacy more broadly was certainly a part of our motivation. No doubt.”

As of now, Showtime is billing Dexter: New Blood as a limited series of 10 episodes. Should the story warrant more, however, Hall said he’d be willing to return as the titular serial killer again.

“It’s a conversation that’s been ongoing, and different possibilities have emerged over the years,” Hall previously told The Daily Beast of his choice to return for the limited series. “I think in this case, the story that’s being told is worth telling in a way that other proposals didn’t, and I think enough time has passed where it’s become intriguing in a way that it wasn’t before.”

He added, “And let’s be real: people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying, and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling. I include myself in the group of people that wondered, ‘What the hell happened to that guy?’ So I’m excited to step back into it. I’ve never had that experience of playing a character this many years on.”

It was during this same panel Showtime released the first trailer for the new batch of episodes. You can watch that here.

Dexter Season Nine premieres on Showtime beginning November 7th and can be watched live or on the Showtime app.