Newly minted Dexter showrunner Chip Johannessen has reached out to Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum) to come aboard Showtime's flagship serial killer series for season five, which premieres in September.  Stiles is reportedly in advanced talks for a "major, top secret role", so actual details on her role are scarce.

Still, speculation on what she might bring to the show verges on spoiler territory (especially given the events of season four).  So we'll save that,  as well as the news that Maura Tierney (ER) may join the new ABC legal drama The Whole Truth, for after the jump.

Perhaps the natural conclusion is that, like Jimmy Smits in season three and John Lithgow in season four, Stiles would play a fellow card-carrying member of The Murderers' Club and nemesis for Dex.  But recent comments from Johannessen suggest otherwise:

“We’re not going to have a single Big Bad this season.  We don’t want to try and top John Lithgow, so we’re going to change up the forces that Dexter’s going to be dealing with.”  [EW]

Probably a smart move to shake up the recent formula a bit.  Likewise, the events of the new season pick up right where the last left off, with dear wife Rita dead in a bathtub.  So Stiles is probably not a romantic interest for Dexter, now a grieving widower.

The smart money suggests that the new character will be a wily member of Miami's finest.  After all, Dexter may not have killed his wife, but the husband always tops the list of suspects, so you'd imagine there would be some sort of investigation into Dex's affairs.  Plus, Dexter always managed to milk some great dramatic tension from the moments when Keith Carradine's Agent Lundy seemed inches away from discovering Dexter's secret.

In broadcast news, ABC allotted the Wednesday 10:00 slot for new legal drama The Whole Truth come September.  But when Joely Richardson left the show to spend more time with her family, Truth found itself without a female lead to star opposite Rob Morrow (Numb3rs).  EW reports that Maura Tierney is in talks to replace Richardson as competitive prosecutor Kathryn Peale.

You may recall that Maura Tierney herself required an eleventh hour replacement last season.  She co-starred in the pilot for family drama Parenthood, but dropped out after NBC picked it up to undergo treatment for cancer.  Count me among those who are happy she's healthy and itching to get back on television.