17 Years After Shocking Death, Dexter Star Finally Revisits the Franchise

The smash hit Dexter has been killing off characters all throughout the franchise, though one of the most memorable losses was the death of Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) wife, Rita (Julie Benz), in the original show’s fourth season. Benz has not been involved with the franchise since, but 17 years later, that has finally changed.

Benz was featured as a guest alongside James Doakes actor Erik King on Dexter’s Kill Room, the official companion series hosted by the franchise’s YouTube channel. While other dead characters have returned as hallucinations, Benz has never made any new appearances as Rita since her final episode in 2009. For Dexter’s Kill Room, Benz said she’s never watched Rita’s death scene, admitting that being killed off left her “devastated” at the time.

Julie Benz Recalls Feeling Devastated Over Rita’s Death

Rita stands in front of a window, talking on the phone, in Dexter

“From the minute I found out it was happening, it was hard to film,” she said. “I only found out a couple days before, and I was devastated. But this scene specifically, it was the very last scene of the season that we shot, and the crew only found out right when they went to set up for it.”

Benz said her “boyfriend at the time,” who’s now her husband, wanted her to “approach it as a celebration and not as an ending.” He and the crew had decorated her trailer with tombstones and had Benz party with the crew, hoping to cushion the blow. Benz did the best she could, even if it felt heartbreaking to say goodbye to the show.

“It was around Halloween, so they went and got all these fun—him and his friends—and they decorated my trailer,” she added. “And so, then I came out and floated a tombstone in the bathtub during rehearsal ’cause the crew was really sad. They didn’t know this was happening. So I tried to make it as fun as I could even though I was very, very sad.”

Julie Benz Knew Dexter Would Be a Huge Hit

Rita Bennett in a coffin as Dexter Morgan mourns in Dexter.

Benz also recalled reading the pilot script and having a great feeling about Dexter. It immediately struck her as a TV show she would love to watch personally, and she predicted that it would be a “huge hit” that ran for many years. The show ultimately ran for eight seasons before spawning two spinoffs and a prequel series.

“Michael [C. Hall] and I went out to dinner and he asked me my thoughts of the show about the pilot and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s getting picked up, and it’s going to run for years. This is a hit,'” she explained. “And he was like, ‘Why do you think that?’ And I’m like, ‘Because it’s something I want to watch. Because it lives in this gray moral zone, and it doesn’t force-feed you an answer. It makes you really think. And this is the type of television I like watching. So, it’s going to be a huge hit.'”

The story of Dexter continues on through Dexter: Resurrection, which has a second season in the works. It is always possible Benz could one day return to the role of Rita as a vision for Dexter, but it remains to be seen if that will happen. Meanwhile, Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 is already confirmed to bring one key character who died in Season 1.