Julie Benz Returns to Dexter After 17 Years

Julie Benz has officially returned to the Dexter franchise 17 years after her character, Rita Bennett, was killed off. The actor appears in the fourth episode of season 3 of the official companion web series, Dexter's Kill Room, which returned in early August.

In the episode, Benz reunited with her former co-star Erik King, who played James Doakes. The pair reflected on their time on the original Showtime series, which premiered in 2006.

Rita as a Damaged Bird

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

"I love season 1 Rita the best," Benz 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 the show would be a hit from the moment she read the pilot script. While filming the pilot, she went to dinner with Michael C. Hall and told him Showtime would order a full season and the show would "run for years."

She thought this because the show "lives in this gray moral zone" and "makes you really think." "When I read the pilot script before I even had the role, I thought this is the type of show I want to watch," Benz recalled. "This show, it's going to be a success."

Filming Rita's Death Scene

Benz and King discussed Rita's death, with Benz admitting she has never watched that scene. She found the experience hard to film and only learned of her character's fate a couple of days before shooting.

"I was devastated," she said. Her boyfriend at the time, now her husband, threw her a party in her trailer so she would "approach it as a celebration and not as an ending." She said she had done a couple of tequila shots before filming the scene, which involved playing dead.

"It's really not hard to do," Benz said of playing dead. The crew decorated her trailer with tombstones as it was around Halloween. "I tried to make it as fun as I could even though I was very, very sad," she added.

While Benz never returned to the main Dexter series or its spinoffs, Erik King did make a guest appearance in Dexter: Resurrection season 1, which aired in 2025. Other spinoffs include New Blood and Original Sin.

After Dexter, Benz appeared on shows like Desperate Housewives, No Ordinary Family, and 9-1-1: Lone Star. She also starred in the film The Midway Point.

This season of Dexter's Kill Room has also featured returns from Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet, and C.S. Lee. 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.