Harrison’s rapid aging in Dexter: New Blood continues in Dexter: Resurrection, all thanks to something known as SORAS.
Dexter’s biological son, Harrison, was first introduced to the series in Season 4. Released in 2009 (the same year the character was born) the season picks up about six months after Dexter and Rita’s wedding, and the plot unfolded in real time during the second half of that year.
Throughout the later seasons of the original series, Harrison was played by several different babies. From late Season 5 to Season 7, the role was portrayed by the Kruntchev twins. Then in Season 8, Harrison was recast again and played by a young child actor.
Even though only around half a year had passed in the story (mid 2012), Harrison suddenly looked much older than expected and was basically portrayed as a 4-5 year old child. But years later, Dexter: New Blood actually took that idea even further.
When the revival series premiered in 2021, fans were reintroduced to Harrison Morgan. The problem is that, timeline-wise, the show was set only nine years after the events of the original finale. Based on Harrison’s actual date of birth, he should have been around 12 years old. Instead, he was portrayed as a 16-year-old teenager. And while a four-year difference may not sound so big on paper, during adolescence that gap is extremely important and noticeable.
Of course, changes like this usually serve a bigger purpose. The creative team rapidly aged Harrison in New Blood for many reasons. The biggest one was that they needed him to be old enough to realistically travel alone across the country in order to find and reunite with his long-lost father.
Another major reason was that they wanted Harrison to be an angry, emotionally damaged teenager who was capable of confronting Dexter for abandoning him. And most importantly, the original long-term plan was reportedly for Harrison to continue the franchise with his own spinoff series after Dexter’s death.
While those Harrison sequel plans never officially moved forward, Dexter: Resurrection was announced around three and a half years later, and Harrison remained part of the story. Even though only about 10 weeks passed between the events of New Blood and Resurrection Season 1, Harrison was no longer portrayed as 16.
According to comments from a member of the creative team in 2025, the writers intentionally made Harrison closer to 18 years old so he could look, act, and feel mature enough for certain storylines. That included getting a job at a famous NYC hotel and developing a crush for Elsa Rivera, a woman was actually confirmed to be 10 years older than him, without the feelings he has for her feel too uncomfortable or creepy.
But it looks like the upcoming season may take Harrison’s accelerated aging even further. While there has been no ‘official’ confirmation regarding a time jump (but only evidence), set photos actually suggest that Season 2 will show Harrison already achieving the career goals he only starts thinking about during the second half of Season 1. If you want to know more about that, and don’t mind spoilers, tap here to see what we’re talking about.
So why does this happen? And is there actually a term for it?
Yes, there is. It is called SORAS, which stands for Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. As the name suggests, the term originally comes from soap operas like Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, and General Hospital.
SORAS happens when writers rapidly age younger characters so they can take on a bigger and more active role in the story, without requiring a massive time jump for the entire series. In Dexter, you could argue this started back in Season 8, when Harrison needed to be old enough for more... interactive scenes that sometimes pushed the story forward. But years later, New Blood and Resurrection actually took the concept to another level entirely.
And yes, we know what some fans are probably thinking: why would the Dexter writers use something associated with something as cringe as soap operas? The reality is that Dexter is far from the only non-soap series to use this storytelling trick. In fact, one of the biggest and most acclaimed TV series ever made also did it multiple times. And that show is Game of Thrones.
Characters like Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen were portrayed as much older than they were in George R.R. Martin’s novels. On top of that, many of the Stark children actually matured onscreen much faster than the implied timeline sometimes allowed, partly because of production gaps. Even Tommen Baratheon was aged up more quickly so he could have enough ‘presence’ to become king during Season 4.
So in reality, this kind of accelerated aging happens far more often than many of you realize. It actually is a normal storytelling device used for narrative purposes, and it usually exists to make younger characters more relevant to the plot.
While Harrison’s rapid aging can definitely feel weird at times, especially during a Dexter rewatch, in the end the reasoning behind it is pretty understandable.