‘Dexter’ Season 8 Official Announcement: This Is The End, Plus New Trailer

Dexter season 8 will be the last run of America’s favorite serial killer, according to a Thursday announcement that most people already saw coming. Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matthew C. Blank brought the news.

“When it debuted in 2006, Dexter redefined the genre, by taking the anti-hero to new heights and pushing the boundaries of the television landscape,” Blank said. “Dexter paved the way for the next generation of award-winning hit Showtime series, and its cultural impact will be felt for years to come.”

Deadline noted how the series hasn’t lost a step in the ratings, continuing to break records while serving as a launchpad for other shows, most recently the smash hit Homeland.

Corroborating that statement, Entertainment Weekly noted that the seventh season’s finale reached a record-high 2.8 million viewers. That’s saying something when you consider how solid the fourth and sixth seasons were.

Despite the goldmine the series has been for Showtime, rumors began circulating during the sixth season that Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) would soon be packing up his kill room.

And just last month Les Moonves, the CEO of Showtime parent company CBS, all but confirmed it.

At a Q&A session, Moonves said, “We have Ray Donovan coming on, with Liev Schreiber, which comes on with Dexter‘s last season starting in June.”

Before the start of the seventh season, producer Sara Cottleton also started bracing audiences.

“We wanted to end it this year, but the network convinced us that it would be best to do it in two years. In some ways, this is a two-season series-ender. We have worked that out and know where it’s going to end.”

Cottleton continued: “Next year will definitely be the last year of Dexter. Absolutely. From the very beginning, when I first started developing the pilot, I always knew it would be a seven-year arc for this series. I feel easily that we can be an eight-year show, but I never want it to get old and stale.”

Cottleton wanted the series to go out on a high, she said, adding that “everybody on the show is determined to keep the level of it up to the very end. It’s always wise to know when it’s time to leave the stage before you’re asked to leave the stage.”

For a sneak peak at Dexter season 8, check the video below, and yes, this is a brand new release and a minute longer than the one we brought you in March.

For seven years, Dexter has been one of the few examples of water cooler television left on the airwaves. It’s a show you plan your Sunday nights around. One you unfriend Facebook contacts over if they can’t keep their status updates quiet.

Do you think Dexter season 8 is the right time to end it? Would you like to see Dexter Morgan on the big screen, perhaps with adaptations of the Jeff Lindsay novels?