Julie Benz Returns to Dexter After 17 Years

Julie Benz has returned to the Dexter franchise 17 years after her character, Rita Bennett, was killed off. The actor appears in the official companion web series, Dexter's Kill Room, which began its third season in early August.

Benz reunited with her former co-star Erik King for the fourth episode of the web series' new season. They reflected on their time playing Rita and James Doakes, respectively.

Rita as a Damaged Bird

During the conversation, Benz described how she always viewed her character. She admitted she always thought of Rita as being like a damaged bird. "She had this little damaged wing, but she would still keep trying to fly," the actress explained. Benz added that she loved the season 1 version of Rita the best.

"I love season 1 Rita the best," she said. "And I always viewed her as this damaged bird. Like she had this little damaged wing, but she still kept trying to fly."

Predicting Dexter's Success

Benz also claimed she knew Dexter would be a hit from the very beginning. When she read the script for the pilot before even landing the role, she thought it was the type of show she wanted to watch.

She recalled a dinner with Michael C. Hall during the pilot shoot. Benz told him she believed Showtime would order a full season and that the show would "run for years." She thought this because the show "lives in this gray moral zone" and "makes you really think."

Filming Rita's Death Scene

The conversation turned to Rita's death in season 4, killed by the Trinity Killer, Arthur Mitchell. Benz admitted she had never watched that scene. She found the whole experience hard to film and had only found out about her character's death a couple of days prior to shooting it.

"I was devastated," she said. Her boyfriend at the time, now her husband, threw her a party in her trailer. He wanted her to "approach it as a celebration and not as an ending."

Benz explained the crew only found out right when they went to set up for the scene, which was the last one of the season they shot. She had done a couple of tequila shots. "I just had to play dead. That's not hard. It's really not hard to do," she said. Her husband decorated her trailer with tombstones, as it was around Halloween.

Life After Dexter and Future Returns

After departing from Dexter, Benz appeared on shows like Desperate Housewives, No Ordinary Family, A Gifted Man, Defiance, Hawaii Five-0, Training Day, and On Becoming a God in Central Florida. More recently, she guest starred on 9-1-1: Lone Star and starred in the film The Midway Point.

Erik King, who played James Doakes, made a guest appearance in Dexter: Resurrection season 1, which aired in 2025. Other Dexter spinoffs over the years include New Blood and Original Sin.

Dexter's Kill Room has brought back several former cast members this season, including Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet, Scott Reynolds, Jack Alcott, C.S. Lee, and Jaime Murray. New episodes are released on the Dexter YouTube channel every Thursday at 12 p.m. EDT. Dexter: Resurrection season 2 will premiere this fall on Paramount+ Premium and Showtime.