‘Dexter’ Showrunner Promises ‘People Are Going to Die’ in Revival Season

Dexter’s ninth season — billed as a standalone revival — will begin filming soon, and the show’s showrunner wants fans to know they will not be holding back. Dexter fans will surely want their fair share of kills in the new series, which will see Michael C. Hall returning as titular character Dexter Morgan. In an interview with TV Insider, showrunner and executive producer Clyde Phillips let fans know bloodshed won’t be absent from the serial killer drama.

“We’re moving forward to an ending that will be, as Chekhov said, surprising but inevitable,” Phillips said, adding, “Dexter always has what we call ‘the dark passenger’ living inside him. He is more grounded than he’s ever been, but that dark passenger is a voice he cannot deny. This is Dexter. People are going to die.”

While this quote ensures fans are in for a bloody good time, it unclear who will be dying. This statement could mean that Dexter some past favorites could pop back up only to pass away. It could also mean that Dexter is back to his old ways, taking out criminals or anyone else in his way. This scenario might be the case, being as Phillips also noted that the titular character would be “somewhere we’ve never seen him before,” signaling that Miami, Florida, might not be the featured setting. Spoilers ahead for Dexter Season 8.

This wording also indicates that our favorite blood-splatter analyst might not still be in Oregon, where he ended up in the final minutes of Dexter Season 8, either. While that ending — and the deaths that came with it — were unpopular, Phillips previously let fans know via a Hollywood Reporter interview that it all still happened canonically.

“We’re not undoing anything,” Phillips said in response to a question about resurrecting Jennifer Carpenter’s deceased character, Debra Morgan. “We’re not going to betray the audience and say, ‘Whoops, that was all a dream.’ What happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years.”

However, he also stressed that this would not merely be Dexter Season 9. The show won’t pick up immediately after Season 8’s closing moments. This revival will jump ahead in time and feel distinct from the original run, giving fans another true ending for Dexter.

“We basically do get to start from scratch,” Phillips said. “We want this to not be Dexter Season 9. Ten years, or however, many years have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage. In so far as the ending of the show, this will have no resemblance to how the original finale was. It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show, and Showtime was very gracious about that.” Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.