Dexter Morgan is alive and, mostly, well. The energy of his resurrection was palpable on the carpet of the “Dexter: Resurrection” world premiere Wednesday night in New York City’s Alice Tully Hall.
The latest installation of the “Dexter” universe follows Dexter Morgan, reprised by the original actor Michael C. Hall, who has essentially come back to life after being shot in the chest by his son Harrison and announced dead. That is until Hall decided he was ready to come back for more.
“Michael Hall came to me and said, ‘Can you figure out how to unkill me?’” Phillips told Variety. “I put a lot of thought into it and called Scott Reynolds, my top writer, and we Zoomed for about a week. And we figured out how to do it.”
“Resurrection” gives a new life (literally) to the beloved serial killer as the series follows the throughline of Dexter’s story left off in the 2021 series “Dexter: New Blood” where he was seen bleeding out in the snow.
“There’s such a thing that’s called the cold water reflex. People that drown in cold water can actually be revived and people who drown in warm water can’t,” said James Remar, who returns as Dexter’s father Harry. “It’s plausible, and I was just very eager to resume this experience and this world.”
In “Resurrection,” Dexter wakes up from a coma 10 weeks later and drives to New York City to track down his son. Newcomers to the “Dexter” universe include Peter Dinklage as Leon Prater and Uma Thurman as Charley.
Returning “Dexter” cast members include Remar, David Zayas as Detective Angel Batista, and Jack Alcott as Harrison Morgan.
“Getting to revisit this story is such a blessing,” said Alcott. “Knowing that I didn’t [kill] him was a great thing to hear.”
“I was sort of not surprised [that Dexter is alive],” said Thurman. “I was a big fan of soap operas when I was a child. I don’t ever want characters I love to die.”
The new season also welcomes Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as Blessing Kamara, Kadia Saraf as detective Claudette Wallace, Dominic Fumusa as detective Melvin Oliva and Emilia Suárez as Elsa Rivera. Guest stars include Krysten Ritter (“Jessica Jones”), David Dastamlchian (“Late Night With the Devil”), Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”) and Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”).
“I think the world is populated with good monsters and bad monsters,” said Dastamalchian who plays Gareth, a sadistic and cruel serial killer on the FBI’s most wanted list. “There’s bad monsters right now basically running a lot of the world, certainly our government, and then there’s good monsters that have something redeemable in them…So I thought, ‘Oh, good monster coming back from the dead.’ I think that’s a good tradition of good storytelling.”
Mwine defined the undeniable excitement surrounding Dexter’s resurrection: “You just can’t kill a good thing.”
Meanwhile, Stonestreet shared his own reunion that he would like to see brought to life.
“I’d like to see ‘Modern Family’ get together sometime again in the future,” the actor shared. “I think we all agree that we would like to see each other and have a shot at creating the magic that we were able to do for 11 seasons.”
“Dexter: Resurrection” premieres with two episodes on July 11 on streaming and on demand for Paramount+ subscribers with the Paramount+ with Showtime plan, before its on-air debut July 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Remaining episodes will premiere weekly.