This installment finds us cutting into the first proposed spinoff of Showtime’s popular serial killer series Dexter, featuring Six Feet Under star Michael C. Hall as the eponymous murderer-of-murderers. While that show eventually received a follow-up late last year in the form of original Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips’ Dexter: New Blood, its executive producer Scott Buck initially pitched an entirely different iteration which sadly never made it beyond its pilot stage. Joining us for a discussion about this project is Mr. Buck, who discusses how the idea first came about, the story it would have told, and why it ultimately never happened.
“The one thing I was told I could not do is kill Dexter, because [Showtime] wanted to bring him back,” Mr. Buck begins, detailing how the possibility of a Dexter spinoff first came about. “So that meant, at least to me, that I also couldn’t have Dexter get captured. Because if he is, that makes him the most notorious serial killer in the world, and you can’t really do any more future episodes because he’s going to walk down the street and everyone he sees is going to recognize him. So that’s what sort of led to the way the show ended.”
Airing on September 22, 2013, the Dexter series finale “Remember the Monsters?” was met with mixed critical and fan reception. Many longtime viewers puzzled over its final moments, which saw our lovable antihero having relocated to somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, eking out a dejected existence as a lumberjack. Given that the lead was still alive in the show’s open-ended final moments, the Dexter fandom seemed to expect that they hadn’t seen the last of Michael C. Hall’s signature character – an assumption eventually validated with the premiere of last year’s Dexter: New Blood. “The feeling out there seems to be that people were so unhappy with the [original] ending, and that’s why they had to come back all these years later and give it a new ending. But from my perspective, it was really the other way around. We ended the show specifically in a way that it could come back, because that had always been the intention. And it was actually the network who pitched to me that Dexter be a doctor.”
Doctor Dexter?! The mind boggles. “I was intrigued by that, but it seemed a little farfetched that, in just a few short years, he could jump through all the hoops and become a doctor. There was also something interesting about him faking his credentials, but there’s also something a little unsatisfying about that. So I pitched the idea that he’d be a paramedic. In a lot of ways, it seemed to make sense, because he’s still working on some level with human bodies as a scientist.
“And it was never that he wanted to help people, that he wanted to atone, but rather … if killing was his heroin, then holding lives in the balance [as a paramedic] would sort of be his methadone. And it’s not that we would draw a whole lot of work-related stories. It was just the background to sort of place him in.”
Michael C. Hall in “Dexter”
Buck notes here that the development of this potential spinoff/reboot didn’t occur after the finale aired, as one might imagine. “It was all sort of going on at the same time we were doing the last season,” he reveals. So if that was the case, that a follow-up was being developed before the flagship show aired its final episode, then was it ever in discussion that the show might not end, and would simply receive a rebooted Season 9? “No, not really. Michael was absolutely done with the show. Part of it, I would have to say, was my inexperience as a showrunner that I didn’t have lengthy discussions with Michael. If I’d had a better sense of how much he did not want to do Dexter anymore, that would have also informed the ending in a way. That we would not go right back the next year, it would be at least three years before we would have come back with the new Dexter.”
If it would no longer be Dexter, one wonders if this project would have premiered under a modified title, much as New Blood eventually did. “It would have happened with a new title,” Buck says. “The whole idea was to completely reinvent Dexter in a new world and a new situation, but still the same character. So we were very careful about making it not feel like a Season 9.”
This writer points out here that the fan chatter that surrounded the original show in the weeks leading up to the finale included some wild guesses as to where the franchise might go once the main series took its bow. Some assumed that there might be a Miami Metro spinoff, or a show focused on Dexter’s troubled cop sister Debra (a hope dashed by the events of the finale). Was there ever a real possibility of a non-Dexter Dexter spinoff? “No. I think that because Showtime was sort of hinting that there was more to come … reporters and journalists were trying to figure out what that meant. Would there be a Jennifer Carpenter spinoff, or Miami Metro? So it was just people guessing, but I don’t think the network ever had any intention of doing something like that. I mean, the show is Dexter, and what made the show special was Dexter and Michael C. Hall. So the idea of doing a show without him…it just doesn’t make much sense.”
So what story would this new show have told? “The idea basically was that Dexter, several years later, had resisted killing all these years. He does get at least some small satisfaction, working as a paramedic. But he’s still living in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, which seems to be the haunting ground of serial killers. So some new Big Bad starts terrorizing the area, and Dexter … he’s telling himself, just out of curiosity, he’s going to look into this. He’s certainly not going to do anything about it, but he finds himself gradually being pulled into it more until finally, the challenge is – this person has to go.”
Given where we left Dexter in the final moments of “Remember the Monsters?”, toiling away his days as a lumberjack, would this new show have explained how exactly he made the transition to paramedic? “You sort of pick it up along the way. It makes perfect sense, that several years have passed, he needed to find a new career. You know, when we see him at the end of the series, he’s driving a truck for a lumberyard. I don’t think any of us believed that’s something that he was really going to do for a long time. It was just him getting on his feet, I think.”
That ending was a grim look at the fallout of Dexter’s choices, one that seemed to provide the character with a comeuppance of sorts. “Some people loved that ending, and obviously quite a few people didn’t. For me, the idea was that if I couldn’t capture him and I couldn’t kill him … we all felt in the writer’s room that, as much as you might love Dexter, there needs to be some sort of consequence. So if no one else punishes him, the idea was that Dexter is punishing himself. That he’s finally realized what he’s done, and that he needs to suffer the consequences.”
Dexter’s final moment in “Dexter” (2006)
Those final moments reveal not only that Dexter is living in some sort of miserable self-imposed exile, but that his ever-present inner monologue is now silent (a development that New Blood undoes in its pilot). Would this choice have followed through into the new project? “No. To me, that was always so important to the show because that’s the only way you really know what he’s thinking. Almost everything Dexter says and does is a lie to some degree. And Dexter was never an honest narrator. He was never even honest with himself. But it’s only hearing that inner voice sometimes when you get to see who he really is and what he’s really thinking, and what his perception of the world is. So to me, that felt very important to the show. I never would have left that.”
In addition to having his inner voice, Dexter also held discussions with his deceased father Harry (James Remar), who would appear to his son in visions (a role and function that was eventually passed to Deb in New Blood). Would a similar conceit have been used in Buck’s proposed spinoff? “As much as I loved Harry, we sort of ended that, so I think it would have just been more or less his inner monologue. [Dexter] talking to Harry was not something that was there at the beginning of the show. It was not there in the books. Because Dexter is so secretive, it’s hard to get story out when he’s the only one who knows the story. So introducing Harry was a way for him to do less monologue and be able to do scenes with another actor.”
In addition to Deb and Harry, Dexter boasted a rich cast of supporting characters, each with their own stories and arcs. Would Buck’s spinoff have followed suit in this regard to provide Dexter with a new ensemble? “There would have been a very small ensemble, much smaller than what we used in the original series. He needs to have people in his life, people that he can have stories with, but I think it would have focused much more on Dexter and his journey. The other characters would not have had their own original stories.”
With a new locale, occupation, and cast of characters set, one wonders if there was a concrete multi-season arc in place for this new iteration of the show. Buck reveals that this wouldn’t necessarily have been the case. “My idea with Dexter would have been more along the lines of what they do with Luther [the acclaimed BBC cop drama starring Idris Elba], where they come back every three or four years and do like six episodes. I would have loved to have seen Dexter grow to be an old man and see how his life gradually evolves over time.
“That’s what I would have liked to have done because … you know, one thing that was so interesting about the character is that he just seemed so indestructible. As many times as he comes close to being caught, he just can’t be caught. He’s too smart. I sort of had the idea that if meteorites hit the earth and all life was destroyed, you would see just Dexter and cockroaches crawling out from underneath the rocks. You just couldn’t kill him. That was something that was so intriguing about continuing to do it for a number of years over time.”
If that plan had actually worked, would Buck have had Dexter pop up in different settings throughout his many adventures? “I think so, to some extent. You have to keep in mind the practicalities of shooting. Despite the fact that the show was set in Miami, it was shot in Los Angeles. You can’t simply just take off all over the world and shoot, but ideally that would have been the plan. I don’t think we had to be kept in any one specific location. It would have been fun to actually shoot Los Angeles as Los Angeles with Dexter there, but I would have also loved to have seen him going down to Buenos Aires to find his family.”
Speaking of his family, would Dexter’s girlfriend Hannah and son Harrison have made an appearance in Buck’s spinoff? “He was still sort of secretly watching Hannah and Harrison. Because we also showed that Dexter was very skilled with IT, he was able to tap into cameras and street footage and banking accounts. As much as he was trying to distance himself from Hannah and Harrison, he was still watching over them in his own way.”
Ultimately, why didn’t this version of Dexter move forward? “I did write that script for Showtime, and I guess Michael just didn’t respond to it. He got the script, and I never heard back from him. Not that he owed it to me in any way, but it all came down through the channels that he just wasn’t interested in doing it. This was like five years ago. I think, at that point, he was still pretty exhausted of Dexter. And that was the end of it. As far as I know, there were never any other potential spinoffs until Clyde [Phillips] did New Blood.”
Michael C. Hall in “Dexter: New Blood”
Given how New Blood ends, with Dexter’s story definitively concluded and Harrison riding off into the sunset, this writer asks if Buck’s script could in any way be repurposed with Harrison as its lead. “I don’t think I wanted it to go in that direction. I mean, one thing that was in the books was that [Dexter’s stepchildren Astor and Cody] were much more involved in the killings. The daughter liked to watch, and the son was very interested. But we all found that bringing children into it was just a little too creepy. Also, there’s no one else like Dexter. We didn’t want to create a Dexter clone or replica.”
In finishing out our talk, Mr. Buck offers his final thoughts on this Dexter show that never was. “It would have been something fun to do, but that’s the way it all worked out. I’m sure everyone is very happy with Dexter: New Blood. I’m glad that it finally came out, because it had been very long in the works that Dexter needed to be finished in some way.”
Very special thanks to Scott Buck for his time and insights.
Welcome to Phantom Limbs, a recurring feature which will take a look at intended yet unproduced horror sequels and remakes – extensions to genre films we love, appendages to horror franchises that we adore – that were sadly lopped off before making it beyond the planning stages. Here, we will be chatting with the creators of these unmade extremities to gain their unique insight into these follow-ups that never were, with the discussions standing as hopefully illuminating but undoubtedly painful reminders of what might have been.