NZ Exclusive: Michael C. Hall on reviving TV's favourite serial killer Dexter

Michael C. Hall returns as serial killer Dexter in Dexter: New Blood, Screening on SoHo and Neon.

Michael C. Hall has the unique distinction of starring in perhaps the most acclaimed series finale in television history, Six Feet Under in 2005, and one of the most derided series finales ever: Dexter in 2013, which climaxed with the the serial-killer-with-a-conscience leaving his young son Harrison behind and choosing to live a life of solitude in the woods.

Fans of the show were not happy, but as Hall tells the Herald in an exclusive Zoom interview, the new sequel series Dexter: New Blood will go some way towards making up for that divisive ending.

"Certainly a part of our motivation to revisit the show had to do with, maybe, replacing the bad taste that was left in a lot of people's mouths," says Hall, who doesn't have any regrets about how the show's storyline wrapped up, but says he can understand the dissatisfaction.

"I certainly stand behind what happened. Perhaps if we had we had more time and hadn't been under the gun, scheduling-wise, we would have done a better job executing [it]. But his ultimate decision to put himself in this self-imposed exile and disappear made sense to me."

Hall says that although the ending "felt final for the time", he's "always known that if a story emerged that felt worth telling, I would be interested in telling it."

Dexter in front of his spooky wood cabin in Dexter: New Blood.

In Dexter: New Blood, we find Dexter Morgan living a tranquil existence under an assumed name in a snowy mountain town. He's in a relationship with a local cop, and he hasn't killed anyone since he left Miami. But that "abstinence" is soon abandoned, and when Dexter commits his first kill in years, he apologises to the victim for being out of practice. Hall says he could relate.

"It felt like a very meta moment. Me saying: I haven't been Dexter in a while. And I guess he hasn't either. Even though even he's still been alive, he's been pretending to be someone else. And so he's coming back into being Dexter in his way as well."

Hall has enjoyed a wide range of roles in the time since Dexter ended, which he says helped with the decision to return to the character now.

"It also had to do with the fact that we managed to assemble so many of the fundamental building blocks of the original creative team of the show," including showrunner Clyde Philips, who left the original series after season four. "That gave me a sense that we'd have a better chance to hit the bullseye."

"And having had a significant amount of time pass has created storytelling opportunities that weren't there until now, mostly having to do with Harrison growing into a young man, [which] presents a much more complex and juicy relationship to explore." Despite dying in the series finale, Dexter's sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) appears in the sequel series, taking over from her and Dexter's father Harry as the personification of Dexter's internalised monologue.

Michael C. Hall in a scene from Dexter: New Blood.

"Through all the twists and turns of those eight seasons his relationship with Deb was the lynchpin. So when we realised that she could be included in this way, it felt immediately essential."

Hall says he's still amazed by how popular Dexter became, even in an era when TV anti-heroes rule. I suggest that it's because we're all dealing with our own "dark passenger" in some way.

"Yeah, I think that may be a big part of its appeal. Whether we characterise it that way, or call it a dark passenger, we all have our own darkness to contend with, we all have our own shadow."

Dexter: New Blood premieres tonight at 8.30pm on SoHo and is also streaming on Neon.