Blood on West 28th Street, Michael C. Hall Toasts Dexter at Twenty
A Comic Con main stage at lunch, a red carpet in Chelsea after, and a second New York season of the polite killer on the way
Half past noon on the far west side. The lights drop on the Main Stage at the Javits Center, and a room that came for comics and costumes settles in for a man who kills killers. On television, anyway. Michael C. Hall is in the room, and so is Dexter Morgan.
New York Comic Con opened its doors on Thursday, October 8, and one of its first big rooms belonged to Dexter: Resurrection. The panel, moderated by Josh Horowitz, put Hall on stage with Uma Thurman, James Remar, Jack Alcott, Bokeem Woodbine and Krysten Ritter, alongside showrunner Clyde Phillips and executive producers Scott Reynolds and Marcos Siega. According to BroadwayWorld, the crowd got a surprise screening of the season two premiere.
Then came the other surprise. Eric Stonestreet walked out as a surprise guest and revealed that he is back as Rapunzel, the killer he played in the first season. Deadline reported the news the same day. Comic Con lives for moments like that.
A Killer Turns Twenty
The panel doubled as a birthday party. The convention billed it as a celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary. Dexter first aired on Showtime on October 1, 2006, and ran for eight seasons in Miami before closing in September 2013. Hall played the title role the whole way through and won a Golden Globe for it. He came back for Dexter: New Blood in 2021, then again for Dexter: Resurrection, which premiered in July 2025 and moved the story to New York City, where Dexter goes looking for his son Harrison.
So this October is the twentieth birthday of a character who has spent most of those years hiding in plain sight. Comic Con is in its twentieth year too. Variety reports the convention began in 2006 as a 33,000 person event and will host 250,000 people over four days this year, at the Javits Center from October 8 through October 11. Both were born in 2006. This week they shared a stage.
So this October is the twentieth birthday of a character who has spent most of those years hiding in plain sight.
The second season picks up in the city. The official description has Dexter caught between two killers. One carries decades of notoriety and a lifetime of kills. The other is a young newcomer frightening New York in ways nobody has seen. Brian Cox and Dan Stevens play that pair, according to Deadline. Dexter also has a new and less bloody problem, a midlife crisis. Harrison, played by Alcott, keeps chasing his own idea of justice.
Stevens, Woodbine, Nona Parker Johnson and Cox join as series regulars. Ritter and Stonestreet return as guest stars, and Gabriel Luna joins as a guest star. The season premieres on Paramount+ on Friday, October 30, for subscribers on the Premium Plan.
Red Carpet at Chelsea Industrial
The day did not end at the Javits. The same day, the season two premiere moved south to the Dexter 20th Anniversary Museum Experience in Chelsea, where photographer Andy Kropa of Invision, shooting for the Associated Press wire, caught Hall on the carpet. Another of his frames shows Hall and Thurman side by side. Thurman, who joined the franchise in the first season of Resurrection, is back for the second.
The museum itself is the part New Yorkers can actually walk into. TV Insider's convention guide lists it at Chelsea Industrial, 547 West 28th Street, open October 9 through October 11. It promises props from the franchise's twenty years, recreated sets, interactive rooms and plenty of places to pose. Tickets are free with a reservation, and there is a standby line each day.
There is also a blood drive. The experience is hosting one on site with the New York Blood Center. For a show whose hero made his name as a blood spatter analyst, that is either a clever bit of public service or the darkest joke of the week. Probably both.
Hall's Other New York
It is easy to forget that Hall has deep New York roots of his own. He finished the graduate acting program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1996 and built his early career on New York stages, including the Broadway revival of Cabaret. Later he starred on Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. On HBO he played David Fisher in Six Feet Under.
Now his most famous character lives here too. The second New York season gives him two other killers, a son with his own plans, and the slow realization that he is no longer young.
For anyone who missed the panel, the season arrives Friday, October 30. For anyone who wants to stand where Dexter stands, the doors on West 28th Street are open through Sunday. Leave the plastic sheeting at home.
The night belongs to Comic Con for a few more days. If you want a sense of how the Javits fills up for a very different crowd, our look at the Armory Show's young galleries is a good place to start.
