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New ‘Dexter’ Sequel Starring Michael C. Hall Announced at Comic-Con 

Molly Brown, from left, Patrick Gibson, and Michael C. Hall attend a panel for "Dexter: Original Sin" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Molly Brown, from left, Patrick Gibson, and Michael C. Hall attend a panel for "Dexter: Original Sin" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
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New ‘Dexter’ Sequel Starring Michael C. Hall Announced at Comic-Con 

Molly Brown, from left, Patrick Gibson, and Michael C. Hall attend a panel for "Dexter: Original Sin" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Molly Brown, from left, Patrick Gibson, and Michael C. Hall attend a panel for "Dexter: Original Sin" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)

The “Dexter” universe is expanding, with everyone’s favorite serial killer coming back from the dead.

At San Diego Comic-Con, the “Dexter” team, led by showrunner Clyde Phillips, announced that audiences would see more of the character in “Dexter: Resurrection,” a new sequel series from Showtime. It will pick up where fellow franchise sequel “Dexter: New Blood” left off with its main character dead, prompting many fans to believe any future sequels would be impossible.

Michael C. Hall, who started playing the titular character in 2006, will reprise his role. He made a surprise appearance at the Comic-Con panel, shocking fans even before they heard the news of the new series. Phillips didn’t disclose too many details, but somehow, the “Resurrection” will revive its lead.

The announcement came during the promotion of “Dexter: Original Sin,” a prequel series that explores the character as a younger man, played by Patrick Gibson.

“This weekend there were a lot of surprises,” Gibson said in an interview with The Associated Press. “They set up the characters in season one to have such rich inner life and so much complexity that even with eight seasons, there’s so much more to explore.”

At the panel, the creatives behind the franchise also announced that Hall is the narrator of the “Original Sin” series, where he will divulge the inner thoughts of young Dexter. The prequel series is set to release in December 2024 and “Dexter: Resurrection” will start filming in January for a summer 2025 release.

Fans at the packed venue Friday exploded with cheers when the panel made the surprise announcement.

“Original Sin” also stars Christian Slater, who said he was “obsessed” with the original series and was looking forward to exploring more of the story that the previous series didn’t get to examine.

“To see Dexter becoming Dexter — it’s really cool to see how Clyde Phillips has handled that and the writing is just so good and so rich, it’s fun to do,” Slater told The Associated Press.

“Dexter” premiered in 2006 and ran for eight seasons, earning Hall five drama actor Emmy nominations. It quickly became one of Showtime’s most successful series and gained a cult-like following.

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.