Why Does The New Season of Dexter Have So Many Guest Stars?

Dextermay have lost Rita and offed the Trinity Killer last season, but an onslaught of new faces will appear on the show this year.

Julia Stiles, Johnny Lee Miller and Peter Weller are just some of the people who will be paying Miami a visit.

Why are so many new stars coming on? And how will that affect the amount of screen time the resident Dextercast gets?

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Executive producer Sara Colleton tells TVGuide.com that instead of having the traditional season-long adversary for Dexter (Michael C. Hall) —The Ice Truck Killer, Lila, Miguel Prado and the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) — there might be several. "We have a really interesting set of interlocking characters who play their role in Dexter's advancement this year," she says.

And the guest stars, also including Chris Vance, April Lee Hernandez, Shawn Hatosy and Katherine Moennig, will eventually connect.

"I think it will be interesting for our audience to spot how they come in and play out. At a certain point in the season, they all interlock in a great way," Colleton says. 

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Which among them will be villainous? No one is saying. But Michael C. Hall teases that there could be more than one shady person in the bunch: "There is certainly a desire to move away from the singular big, bad character and explore different storytelling techniques with the show... While there may be more spinning plates, from a character standpoint, I think they all serve their purpose and will dovetail into a conclusion that is serendipitous — in that it allows every seemingly disparate element to contribute to what ultimately goes down."

Even with the bigger ensemble, Colleton assures it won't get too complicated for viewers. "It's Dexter," she says. "It's always Dexter. It's all about Dexter and always will be Dexter."