That said, there’s always the possibility of a Dexter spinoff centered on Dexter’s son Harrison, who featured heavily in the Dexter revival. Fan reaction to the character has been somewhat mixed, with most praising young actor Jack Alcott’s performance, but bristling at what they presumed to be his positioning to lead the series in the future. While there are no current plans for a spinoff, executive producer and New Blood showrunner Clyde Phillips seems more than open to the idea.
“I’m open to the possibility [of a Harrison spinoff] if they wanna pursue it but there are no plans at the moment for that. Jack Alcott is a great actor,” Phillips told EW. But in a separate interview to TV Insider, Phillips seemed more than open. “I would love to do it. This show is Showtime’s number one asset and if they come to me and say, ‘We want to pursue Harrison.’ I’ll say yes in a heartbeat.”
While Alcott has more than proven he can anchor a series, the question becomes what would a Harrison spinoff look like? While the character’s origin story is eerily similar to his father’s, Dexter: New Blood’s conclusion proved that the younger Morgan did not share his father’s primal blood lust. Though Harrison may have to contend with violent urges and the trauma of witnessing his mother’s death, the character doesn’t appear to be driven to kill.
Inversely, Harrison seemed quite intrigued at the idea of delivering vigilante justice to criminals who have escaped prosecution as a means of channeling his anger and violent urges. Before Harrison was able to see that Dexter’s code was loosely defined and mostly self-serving, the concept seemed to excite him. While the latter seasons of Dexter largely treated the character as a superhero to their detriment, Dexter writers finally have a character that could appropriately carry on the Dark Defender idea.
Harrison could be positioned as a vigilante that follows the same code as his father, but simply doesn’t kill his victims. Much like Batman, Harrison would have to grapple with the fact that ridding the world of these offenders would make the world a better place but carrying out the executions would make him no better than the criminals themselves. Constantly fighting the urge to take his methods to the extreme could generate a lot of internal conflict. The procedural element of Dexter that most of the fans craved — choosing a target, finding evidence of their crimes, stalking the prey, and delivering “justice” — could still take place, just without all the plastic wrap.
Still, there’s a large part of the audience that comes for the blood, gore, and kills. Removing that macabre aspect of the show would make this a decidedly different series, and fans of Dexter simply may not want to follow Dexter’s son. No matter how great Jack Alcott is, he’ll never be Michael C. Hall, which is something that certain fans will always hold against him. While Alcott could eventually be given the space to craft something as layered and compelling, a large portion of Dexter’s audience may not be willing to give him the chance. Perhaps a Harrison show could overcome this obstacle by having Hall appear similarly as Jennifer Carpenter did during New Blood, as a representation of the side of Harrison that sees killing his targets as a simpler way to enact change, an actual demon we can watch him wrestle with, but would that be enough of a hook for the Dexter faithful?
