Showtime intervened in the scripts for the 2021 miniseries, blocking something that the creator had planned for the season.
Four years have passed since Dexter: New Blood premiered on Showtime, and all the complaints fans had about that series seem to have faded away, thanks to the arrival of Dexter: Resurrection the follow-up that miraculously corrected nearly everything that went wrong with New Blood and brought the show back to its former glory.
After the original series wrapped in 2013 with a finale that frustrated millions of fans, Showtime always had plans to bring Dexter back. That revival finally materialized eight years later in New Blood, but the development for the project actually began in 2019, when original showrunner Clyde Phillips returned to helm the new chapter, a decade after his last season which was the Trinity Killer season. Inevitably, his comeback raised expetcations high, but as with many large-scale television productions, not every creative idea made it from the writers’ room to our TV screen.
Like most big networks, Showtime had quite a strong hand in shaping the direction of New Blood. According to Phillips, certain story elements were cut, not because they lacked creative merit, but due to decisions made higher up the chain of command. In a recent interview with Final Draft, Phillips revealed that one of the biggest omissions involved something central to Dexter’s very identity: the kills.
“There was an episode in New Blood that we would've liked to do,” Phillips said. “We wanted more kills. Dexter: New Blood was initially about abstinence, but then you have to come out of that and make it an exciting show about a serial killer. So we actually planned two additional kills. Showtime didn’t want to do that, and that was probably the biggest one for me.”
That word “abstinence” captures perfectly Dex’s mindset at the very start of New Blood. After faking his death and disappearing, Dexter had gone nearly a decade without killing. His eventual relapse into his old ways, was meant to feel monumental, and a true re-awakening of his Dark Passenger. But with Showtime’s decision to cut those two planned kills, New Blood was left with just five total victims, one of which was accidental. Those kills included Matt Caldwell, Jasper Hodge, Elric Kane, Kurt Caldwell, and Sergeant Logan.
It wasn’t the only time Showtime stepped in to alter Dexter’s creative direction. Phillips also revealed that similar network intervention occurred most recently, during the development of Dexter: Resurrection.
While the reason behind the network’s decision to cut the two extra kills remains unknown, it’s important to remember that not every creative choice in a series like Dexter is up to the writers, as sometimes, the final word comes from the network itself.