Although Dexter: Resurrection season 1 premiered in 2025, Dexter’s age in the series doesn’t actually line up with the current year.
Dexter may be approaching a major milestone as a television series, turning 20 years old this year, but that number doesn’t automatically apply to the character at the center of it all. With both Dexter Morgan and the man who brings him to life, Michael C. Hall, celebrating their birthday today on February 1, it is the perfect moment to take a closer look at Dexter’s actual age, especially in the context of Dexter: Resurrection.
Dexter Morgan was born on February 1, 1971, the same date as Michael C. Hall. While that makes Hall 55 years old today, the math actually works a little differently for Dexter himself. Dexter: Resurrection may be releasing in 2025, but the story is not set in the present day.
Instead, the revival takes place in March of 2022, which means Dexter Morgan is 51 years old in Resurrection, not 54 as many might initially assume. The timeline shift creates a small but also notable gap between the character’s age and the actor’s real-life age, even though their shared birthday actually keeps the internal logic consistent.
That consistency becomes even more interesting when you look back at the original series. Before getting into that, it is worth briefly setting aside Dexter: Original Sin, the prequel series starring Patrick Gibson, which is set in Miami in 1991. In that show, Dexter is 20 years old, something that is firmly anchoring his established birth year.
In the original Dexter series, the timeline is surprisingly straightforward. Season 1 takes place in 2006, when Dexter is 35 years old. Season 2 follows in 2007 with Dexter at 36, Season 3 in 2008 with him at 37, and Season 4 in 2009 when he turns 38. Season 5 spans 2009 into 2010, placing Dexter at 39, while Season 6 jumps to 2011, where he turns 40. Season 7 also takes place in 2011, keeping Dexter at the same age, and by Season 8 in 2012, he is 41 years old at the time of the so-called lumberjack finale.
Dexter: New Blood actually moves the story forward to late 2021, nine years after the events of the original finale and roughly in sync with when the series aired on Showtime. That places Dexter Morgan at 50 years old during New Blood, which was presetned as the age at which he was meant to die at the hands of his own son. Of course, that fate was thankfully undone when Dexter survived the gunshot, paving the way for Resurrection.
Unlike Harrison, whose age was adjusted more...freely for story convenience (something audiences were not in favor of), Dexter’s age has remained consistent across the franchise and continues to line up closely with Michael C. Hall’s own timeline.
With Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 on the horizon, it will definitely be interesting to see how far forward the story jumps next, and whether the writers choose to keep Dexter’s age as close as possible to the present day once again.