Hannibal, in its TV incarnation, has drawn to a close. With the third season announced as its final chapter – at least in current form – creator Bryan Fuller talked to HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall about the potential future for his vision of Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham and the rest of his stylish, goresome series.
The final episode – beware spoilers for those who have yet to watch it – saw Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will (Hugh Dancy) teaming up to bait Francis Dolarhyde, (Richard Armitage) the self-styled Red Dragon, out of hiding and ended up in distinctly Sherlock Holmes/Moriarty style.
While Fuller didn’t divulge directly what might happen with our anti-heroes, he did speculate on potential future avenues for more of the story. “[Executive producer] Martha De Laurentiis is looking into financing for a feature film. The season four that we were going to tell is such a restart and reimagining that I still hope in some way that we get to tell a version of that, if not Silence Of The Lambs itself, as a miniseries. I would love to return this cast to the big screen from whence they came, and Hannibal Lecter to the big screen, from whence he came. It seems perfectly symmetrical.”
But he’s not thinking it’ll happen just yet, or even that way if it happens at all. Asked about the odds of a return on the big screen or via miniseries, he said, “I have no idea. I think they're less than 50/50, and not in our favour. But I'm curious to see how folks respond to the finale, and then also if that satisfies them? If that feels like ‘We got a conclusion to our story and it's wrapped up in a bow, and we don't need anymore,’ then the audience will dictate. But if the audience is still there for the show and still wants a continuation of that story, I'll continue looking for ways to give it to them.”
A big sticking point for now is the availability of the cast and crew – Mikkelsen, Dancy, Gillian Anderson, Laurence Fishburne and the other actors have other contracted jobs, and Fuller is part of the team working on the latest attempt to bring Neil Gaiman’s American Gods to TV at US cable channel Starz, everyone is busy. But hope remains. For our chat with Fuller about all things Hannibal, head here.