Dexter is set to return with a 10-episode limited series on Showtime with original star Michael C Hall lined up to reprise his role as the serial killer.
The 49-year-old star will team up with the show's original executive producer, Clyde Phillips, to bring back the acclaimed crime-drama in 2021, eight years after it went off air.
The new episodes will be a continuation of the original series, which ended with Dexter - a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department and vigilante serial killer - going into a self-imposed exile.
Dexter was initially a huge critical success, though it struggled to maintain the high levels of acclaim during its eight-season run.
The finale was met with uproar from loyal fans of the show, who were upset at how the story ended for Dexter and some of the other characters.
Dexter is set to go into production next year, with a tentative premiere date of late 2021. The series originally ran from 2006-2013.
Showtime Entertainment president Gary Levine said: "We would only revisit this unique character if we could find a creative take that was truly worthy of the brilliant, original series.
"Well, I am happy to report that Clyde Phillips and Michael C Hall have found it, and we can't wait to shoot it and show it to the world."
Michael C Hall earned five Primetime Emmy nominations for Dexter, and won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award but he has seemingly agreed with fans before that the ending was not as satisfactory as it could have been.
Based on the 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, as well as other titles in the book series, Michael is hoping to bring a better finale to the story that gained a huge following.
The finale left the title character starting again as a lumberjack in Oregon after faking his own death and many felt this was out of character to how he had been across the eight series.
The ending was defended by showrunner Scott Buck at the time, who told Entertainment Weekly : "Even if I don’t write an episode, I’m still in charge. I take full responsibility. We all work cohesively as a team.
"If people think the final episode stood out, it’s probably because it’s been sitting in my mind for so long. It’s a difficult question to answer."
Executive producer Sara Colleton added: "I try not to read any of the blogs because then I become paralysed.
"If they knew how much we agonised internally about everything... if we then tried to factor in an assortment of opinions it would dilute the process."
Michael himself sympathised with fans, telling IGN : "I honestly find it to be a pretty dark ending, and I think it upset a lot of people.
"Certainly, the shakiness of certain aspects of the eighth season maybe made that ending less palatable to people.
"I don't think people were ready to be told that, because they were already feeling a sense of ambivalence for the show.
"But the idea that he imprisons himself in a prison of his own making I think is fitting [for the character]."
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