‘Dexter’ Revival: John Lithgow Is Returning as the Trinity Killer

Dexter Season 4 Finale Michael C Hall John Lithgow Trinity Killer
Randy Tepper/Showtime

If you didn’t think you’d see John Lithgow back on the upcoming Dexter revival on Showtime because his character, Arthur Mitchell, a.k.a. the Trinity Killer, is dead, it turns out you were wrong.

Lithgow is returning, according to Deadline, though no details have been shared yet as to how he’ll appear. The report calls his return “short but decisive.” The easiest way would be some sort of “new” flashback or hallucination.

Lithgow appeared in the fourth season of the series’ original run. The husband and father got his name because he murdered three every year, and among his victims was Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) wife Rita (Julie Benz). Dexter killed Arthur (pretty definitively, too). Lithgow won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Star in a Drama Series for the role in 2010.

The revival of Dexter picks up about eight years after we last saw the titular character, living in Oregon and working for a lumber company. Now, he has a new identity, and he’s in the fictional town of Iron Lake in Upstate New York.

Among the new characters in Dexter’s new life is Iron Lake’s mayor, Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), the revival’s villain, and the town’s first Native American Chief of Police Angela Bishop (Julia Jones).

Dexter Season 4 Episode 5 John Lithgow Trinity Killer

Randy Tepper / © Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection

“Dexter always has what we call ‘the dark passenger’ living inside him,” executive producer Clyde Phillips previously said of the revival. “He is more grounded than he’s ever been, but that dark passenger is a voice he cannot deny. This is Dexter. People are going to die.”

Dexter, Fall 2021, Showtime