Entertainment

New cast members, plot details revealed for ‘Dexter’ revival filming in Mass.

Here's who will be joining Michael C. Hall to film "Dexter" in Massachusetts.

By Kevin Slane

January 11, 2021

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Showtime just announced new information about its upcoming “Dexter” revival, which is set to begin filming in Massachusetts later this month.

Joining the previously announced Michael C. Hall (“Six Feet Under”) and Clancy Brown (“The Shawshank Redemption”) in the 10-episode limited series will be Julia Jones (“The Mandalorian”), Alano Miller (“Sylvie’s Love”), Johnny Sequoyah (“Believe”), and Jack Alcott (“The Good Lord Bird”).

The show will take place in the fictional upstate New York town of Iron Lake, but primary production will take place in Massachusetts. “Dexter” will primarily be filmed west of I-495 in towns and cities like Gardner, Lancaster, Sterling, and Worcester, according to two sources familiar with the production. “Dexter” will also be filmed at New England Studios in Devens, and will wrap in July, they said.

Hall will reprise the titular role of Dexter Morgan, who for eight seasons worked as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department living a double life as a vigilante serial killer. In the original series finale, which was widely panned by critics, Dexter fakes his own death and leaves Miami, beginning a new life working for a lumber company in Oregon.

In the limited series’ primary villain role, Brown will play Kurt Caldwell, the unofficial mayor of Iron Lake who owns the local truck stop and several trucks.

“Powerful, generous, loved by everyone — he’s a true man of the people,” reads a character synopsis for Brown first obtained by TV Line and later confirmed by Showtime to Boston.com. “If he’s got your back, consider yourself blessed. But should you cross Kurt, or hurt anyone that he cares for, God help you.”

Jones will play Angela Bishop, the first Native American chief of police in Iron Lake, while Sequoyah will play her “brash and opinionated” teenage daughter Audrey. Miller will play Logan, an Iron Lake Police Department sergeant, and Alcott will play Randall, a teenager who has a “meaningful encounter” with Dexter.

Originally airing for eight seasons and 98 episodes from 2006 to 2013, Showtime first announced it would be reviving “Dexter” for a limited series in October.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Hall said that having a chance to give “Dexter” a new ending appealed to him.

“Let’s be real: People found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying, and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling,” Hall said. “I include myself in the group of people that wondered, ‘What the hell happened to that guy?’ So I’m excited to step back into it. I’ve never had that experience of playing a character this many years on.”

News of a TV series starting production to Massachusetts is a welcome one for the local film industry as shows typically bring more steady work than film production. In 2020, two shows filmed in Massachusetts were cancelled, with Hulu ending “Castle Rock” after two seasons and Netflix axing its teen drama “The Society after production on a second season was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Dexter” is the third Showtime project to film in Massachusetts in recent years: The cable network filmed the pilot episode of the Boston-set “City on a Hill” in the Boston area and returned to film scenes for season two last year. The second season of the now-cancelled “SMILF” was also filmed locally.