After a lot of teasing as to who would step into the female lead role (and basically replace Willem Dafoe) in Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, director Troy Duffy has finally revealed that it will be Julie Benz from Dexter!

This is the first big major casting announcement, as Clifton Collins Jr. was just sorta always there and most of the rest of the cast are returning from the first movie.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is not some romantic female lead. Considering Dafoe’s character ultimately chose to believe that what the brothers were doing was necessary, a new authority figure (Benz) has decided that someone needs to stop what’s going on and that it would be her pleasure. This was explained in the radio interview Troy did a while back, so don’t quote me exactly, but it’s right along those lines.

Check out the announcement video below to see Miss Benz and then see her fire off a big f’n gun.’

Dexter
Season 2
Starring Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 19, 2008

Dexter is a show that works beyond all the expected ways it could be anticipated to work. The first season involved Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall, a serial killer who works forensics on the Miami Police Department. His targets are criminals and people who use the normal parameters of the law to their own ends instead of justice. In an unfair world, Dexter acts as an equalizer.

But, more than that, it’s about a man, admittedly dead to the world, fumbling and futzing his way towards humanity and a soul. For someone like Dexter, who freely admits that he has no emotions, he sure does develop a lot of attachments. To his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and her two kids; To his sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), who’s also a cop and has no luck with romance. Through his interactions with others he finds out, much to both his joy and dismay, that he was human all along. Kind of like The Wizard of Oz in Dante’s ring of murderers.

And this was all in the first season. Here we are with the second season, now on DVD, and I think it’s better than the first. Instead of trying to capture lightning in a bottle yet again, it’s a continuation of the central themes and a continuing evolution of Dexter as a character.

Yeah, so he has a soul. NOW what?