To celebrate last month’s video release of the sixth season of DEXTER, Showtime’s hit series about the personable serial killer played by Michael C. Hall, a party was thrown poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There were setpieces from the creepy church—statuary, gargoyles and the like—on a balcony overlooking the festivities. In the pool, several toy boats with Slice of Life (the name of Dexter’s craft) painted on the side raced each other via radio controls. Among the attendees were DEXTER showrunner/executive producer Scott Buck and executive producer/writer Manny Coto, who took some time to talk to Fango about where DEXTER has been and where it may be going—and how long it may run.

Season six saw Dexter grappling with issues of spiritual faith and forgiveness—by the end, he seemed to have pretty conclusively decided against the latter. Dexter also closed the year with his beloved and loving adoptive sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), a police lieutenant with Miami Metro Homicide, walking in as Dex dispatches his latest victim. “I’m extremely proud of the season,” Coto says. “I feel it worked as well as we designed it, especially the conclusion, where the show took a complete spin with Deb’s discovery of Dexter’s secret, which is, in a big way, what the season was building up to.”

Buck agrees: “It was also a season we needed to do in terms of Dexter’s progression through the years—where he’s not only thinking about himself, but thinking beyond that, thinking about his son. So in a way, this is sort of Dexter at his lightest, which some fans may respond to.”

It seems that, in season seven (which premieres this Sunday, September 30 at 9 p.m. ET/PT), Dexter will have more than usual to contend with, as he’s now got to deal with not only his homicidal urges and fathering his toddler son Harrison, but handling Deb’s new knowledge. “Again,” says Buck, “as far as that goes, this is a season where Dexter becomes even more human. But that doesn’t necessarily mean being empathetic and light and happy, because there are so many sides to emotions that are very dark as well, and that’s what we’ll see Dexter exploring a lot of this year. It’s not going to be an easy road for Dexter whatsoever, balancing who he is, along with his son, along with Deb and whatever else he might encounter this season.”

“I second what Scott said,” Coto adds. “Harrison is a huge issue, and Dexter now has to live with the reality that his sister knows who he is, and that’s going to definitely turn his life upside down. Where Harrison fits into that is a huge thing that we have to consider for Dexter’s emotional through-line of the season.”

Although everybody is, as usual, tight-lipped about specifics of the upcoming episodes, it is known that Ray Stevenson is joining the cast as Isaac, the head of the Russian mafia whose friend and fellow mobster is murdered by Dexter, setting Isaac up as one of Dexter’s chief antagonists. “I had worked with [Stevenson] previously on ROME,” Buck explains, “and knew what an extremely talented actor he was. I brought his name up to [fellow DEXTER executive producers] John Goldwyn and Sara Colleton and they were both huge fans of his, so after that, it was just a matter of showing him to Showtime, and it was just a done deal. We’re all very excited about the prospect of that.”

Coto adds, “We had [written] this terrific character we were really proud of, and when Scott said, ‘Ray,’ there was no other consideration from that point on.”

It has been widely believed that the following season, DEXTER’s eighth, will be its last. However, Coto had told Assignment X magazine earlier this year that the series might continue, a possibility also acknowledged at a press conference by Showtime’s president of entertainment, David Nevins. “The deal is, it’s not up to us how many years we go,” Coto says. “We love the show, because it’s based on a character who can continue to evolve for as long as we like. It’s a decision that is completely up to Showtime. We know we’re picked up for eight years. After that, we’ll see how things go.”

Buck laughs in agreement. “Nothing else to add to that.”

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