Dexter's Back in the House

(Photo from IMDB.com)

According to the interview done by the people at E! Online, production for Dexter's fifth season has started. Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Deb Morgan and real life wife of Michael C. Hall, shares her thoughts about their first day back:

We've had our first read through and people will be pleasantly surprised. We read the first episode, and it doesn't feel like a job anymore. It's just really exciting.

And of course, the most important question is if her husband is well now. For all those who don't know yet, Hall had a bout with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and underwent treatment for the said cancer.

We've said it over and over that he's in complete remission just so people will stop worrying, but still people come up to him asking, "Are you okay?"

Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. (Photo from IMDB.com)

A quote from Julie Benz and some other casting news after the jump!
Just a bit of a backgrounder, (SPOILERS for those who have yet to watch the last season) the season finale ended with a bloody scene in the home of Dexter and Rita. When Dexter thought he was able to one-up the Trinity Killer, played brilliantly by John Lithgow, he found the body of Rita bathing in her blood and their baby in the middle of a pool of blood a la Papa Dexter's childhood and what the show alludes to as the root of all his dark thoughts. I seriously needed a few days to get over the heavy feeling after watching the finale.

(Photo from IMDB.com)

The news is that Julie Benz will be back for a number of episodes in the new season. And looks like the production team is keeping the details under wraps. What Julie Benz shared was that if Rita were to return, she wouldn't be a ghost.

The writers would never do something so cheesy. I am not going to confirm or deny anything, but if she does come back, it would be to move things along.

Now that piques our interest. What do these people have up their sleeves. I know the producers have said that she won't be like Harry Morgan's appearances to Dexter. There's the possibility that they'll do flashbacks to the happy times with Rita, while they bury her. Wait that's even cheesier! Or showing us her last moments on Earth. Damn.

Shawn Hatosy in a promo picture of Southland. (Photo from IMDB.com)

Entertainment Weekly did report on a couple of people coming over to Miami to join the cast of Dexter. There's Shawn Hatosy, who I remember, oddly enough more for his role in Alpha Dog than Southland, and Julia Stiles, yes the girl who was in that movie with Heath Ledger and in the Bourne Trilogy. Apparently, Hatosy will be a villain this season, while Stiles's role is still a mystery. But for a movie actress to transition to a TV show, it must be a meaty role. Another baddie perhaps or as EW suggests, a distant relative?

Looks like we're in for a lot of new things in Dexter! Make sure to tune in to its return on September 26, 2010 on Showtime.