Dexter star Michael C Hall has addressed the backlash to the show’s much-hated ending ahead of the series’ reboot.
Showtime’s acclaimed drama – which stars Hall as sympathetic Miami serial killer Dexter Morgan – ran for eight seasons from 2006 to 2013.
Its final episode, which sees Hall’s character fake his own death and assume a new identity as a solitary lumberjack in Oregon, was widely panned by fans and critics. It is frequently ranked among the worst TV finales of all time.
Although talk of a reboot has been floating around since the show’s conclusion eight years ago, a revival was officially greenlit in October last year, with Hall set to reprise the titular role.
Ahead of the reboot, Hall addressed the original show’s controversial finale during an interview with The Daily Beast. “Let’s be real: people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying, and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling,” he said.
“I include myself in the group of people that wondered, ‘What the hell happened to that guy?’ So I’m excited to step back into it.”
Speaking about the fans’ reaction to the finale, he said that “a criticism that speaks to someone’s experience is warranted”.
However, the actor added that he thought “it was justifiable for Dexter to do what he did”.
“I think some of the criticisms were about that, and some of the criticism weren’t so much about the ‘what’ as they were about the ‘how’, and those were valid too,” said Hall.
The 49-year-old concluded: “We certainly do live in an era where the bar is very high as far as the simultaneous surprise, satisfaction, and closure that should go along with a series finale.”
The Dexter revival will be set a decade after the end of the original series, and is scheduled to begin production this year for a tentative release date in autumn.
