Executive producer and showrunner Clyde Phillips talks with Adam Ferrara about Dexter's return.
Clyde Phillips, mostly known for his amazing work in the first four seasons of Dexter as showrunner, sits down with The Adam Ferrara Podcast. He talks about his life, his decision to return to the franchise after all these years, the reason he left Dexter after season 4, and more.
Read below, the most important bits of his interview, and hit the play button on our Spotify player, to listen to the whole podcast! Minor spoilers ahead!
First, he revealed that he's very aware about the series finale's impact to the fans. He says "if you look at the 10 worst television series finale episodes of all time, every list will include Dexter in it".
About the decision to reboot Dexter: "So, Showtime called me up and the I sat with my writing assistant and we kinda knew the parameters of where they wanted it to take place, so we sat and talked, and talked, and talked, for days, and days, and days, and then I wrote up a draft of where I saw the season generally to be. Then, I went to New York to meet with Michael C. Hall and run this by him and talked for an hour, he had a couple of questions and then he said "I love it, I'm in, give me a hug". Then I called showtime, they were delighted, then I put together the writing staff ."
"I flew back to LA in August, we set up offices we set up the big boards in the writing room. For the first weeks we just do what we call NPO, which is no particular order, just sh*t we'd like to see happen in the new season. And we put all those on the board and I'd say a third of them stayed."
"We knew where it was going to end. As you know I write mystery novels and... you gotta know the ending."
So, how was Dexter changed since the lumberjack series finale? Phillips reveals that Dexter "has moved to a place [physically] where there's less temptation. So that he can try to be upstand. But... people who deserve to die cross his path once again. And he's gotta do something about it".
Listen to the whole podcast right below! The beginning of the interview is at the 15th minute. The important Dexter bits begin at the 30th minute.