Dexter: New Blood Season 2 Won't Happen, But A Prequel Series Is Possible
This article contains major spoilers for "Dexter: New Blood."
If there's one way to rile up the internet, all you need to do is bring up the series finale of "Dexter." The Showtime crime drama, which ran for eight seasons, saw the titular serial killer vigilante seemingly meet his end after driving his boat into the middle of a hurricane as his way to pay for his destructive actions. But in a last little moment, we see that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is still alive, moonlighting as a lumberjack somewhere. For years, devoted series followers had to sit with that head-scratcher of an ending, that is, until "Dexter: New Blood" picked up a decade after the self-imposed exile.
The sequel series was relatively well-received, as it gave folks who were unhappy with the ending another chance to see Dexter's journey receive a more fitting conclusion. For the most part, it was a pretty engaging reintroduction, and the perfect opportunity to start fresh. But just like clockwork, the finale proved to be the contention of controversy once again, as a swath of fans lunged at what appeared to be the character's true death.
Given how "New Blood" ended, it was clear that the revival was initially envisioned as a miniseries. There may have been talks about expanding the story into a second season, given that it was Showtime's most-watched series ever. But according to a report from TVLine, the idea of "New Blood" season 2 is pretty much dead. It doesn't come as a surprise. Jack Alcott did pretty well as a teenage Harrison, but Hall was the life and blood of this show. What does surprise me, however, is the bizarre spinoff idea that they're currently working on.
Bring in the wig!
What more could you possibly do with "Dexter" after you've finally killed him off? Well, according to TVLine, there are some folks at Showtime who are throwing around a number of spinoff ideas, with one of them being Dexter's youth. Going the prequel route is a time-honored television tradition, but it's really strange to go down the route with "Dexter" of all shows.
The original series showed us everything we needed to see from the serial killer's childhood. If Dexter was having a moment of crisis, it usually led to a flashback sequence that shows how he got to that point. This prequel development feels so uniquely unnecessary, but at the same time, that's never stopped a Hollywood executive before. Barring his much younger stages, one of the funniest decisions the original showrunners made was slapping a comically awful wig on Hall.
Although the series was legitimately funny, the horrible headpiece deflated the impact of any scene it's used for, notably during Dexter's first human kill. With that said, I will give Showtime so much respect if "Young Dexter" brings Hall back and doesn't even mention the clear age difference. Realistically, they would probably bring in Alcott to film the younger version of his screen father. There isn't much left to explore with this character's already-trodden past, but we'll just have to wait and see what kind of tricks are up Showtime's sleeve.
"Dexter: New Blood" is currently streaming on Showtime.