‘Dexter’ returns: Is Jennifer Carpenter’s character alive?
Jennifer Carpenter will officially join the cast of the forthcoming revival of Dexter.
Carpenter participated in a Dexter Q&A at a Television Critics Association press event on Tuesday and revealed the nature of her returns to the franchise. Many fans may be wondering how Deb could join the cast considering her grim fate in the former final season seemed to rule out any returns.
A new passenger?
Jennifer Carpenter’s character will replace James Remar’s Harry Morgan as an avatar of Dexter Morgan’s internal conflict. Remar’s character is credited in the show with developing the code by which Dexter operates that allows him to kill & avoid detection. Remar’s Harry was Dexter’s adoptive father who tried to control his son’s “dark passenger”, his overwhelming urge to kill.
Dexter bid farewell to this ghost of Harry Morgan near the end of the eighth season, so while there is little chance for any returns from Remar, Deb is a natural replacement for him. Michael C. Hall said he was thrilled to have Carpenter return in the new role.
“I was so excited about Jennifer doing this because I knew she would be able to shapeshift and come at Dexter from so many different places.” He added, “it was really fun to crack open our sense of [Dexter]’s internal landscape, because it’s much more pyrotechnic and crazy than it used to be.”
Rumors of Carpenter’s return to the Dexter franchise began to swirl earlier this year after she posted a photo of herself on set wearing an outfit that reminded fans of Deb’s wardrobe. In addition, John Lithgow, who played the Trinity Killer in season four, misspoke and included Carpenter among the cast set to return for the new season.
New Blood
Dexter: New Blood will pick up ten years after the original series finale. Dexter Morgan resurfaces in the fictional upstate New York town of Iron Lake. Morgan, living under an assumed name, has suppressed his murderous urges and begun a relationship with the town’s chief of police, Angela Bishop. Morgan’s new life is thrown into disarray when a series of events threaten to reawaken his dormant “dark passenger”.
Clyde Phillips, the executive producer & writer of Dexter’s first four seasons, will also return for the revival. Phillips said that, while he had a number of different ideas, he just didn’t have the right take on a satisfying ending to the series. It wasn’t until a meeting with series star Michael C. Hall in 2019 that they finally agreed on a path forward.
The series finale was extremely polarizing. Hall seems to agree, saying “I think the ending was ‘mystifying’ at best to people”. New Blood serves as an attempt to give fans a more satisfying ending to the series. Phillips has claimed that “the ending of this one will be stunning, shocking, surprising, unexpected. And without jinxing anything, I will say that the ending of this new show that we’re doing will blow up the internet.”
Cast
As we know, Jennifer Carpenter will reprise her role as an imaginary version of Dexter’s sister Debra. Julia Jones is set to play Angela Bishop, Iron Lake’s chief of police & Dexter’s love interest. Jones previously appeared in the Twilight films, Wind River, Westworld, and Goliath.
Clancy Brown will play the show’s antagonist Kurt Caldwell, who is the beloved unofficial mayor of Iron Lake. Brown played the villainous Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption as well as the Kurgan in Highlander. He also lends his voice to Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants.
Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, Jack Alcott, and David Magidoff round out the rest of Dexter: New Blood’s main cast. John Lithgow is confirmed to have a cameo appearance as the Trinity Killer, just one of many shocking returns. The miniseries was filmed in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
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Are you looking forward to Dexter’s return? Do you think they’ll give fans a better ending this time around? Let us know in the comments below!
