“Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller shares where he intends the planned seven seasons to go

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Bryan Fuller’s new NBC series “Hannibal” has been slowly chugging away for a while, with the most recent news being the casting of Hugh Dancy in the role of FBI Agent Will Graham (played previously by William Peterson and Edward Norton).  Today brings a bit more clarity to Fuller’s vision for the series with several statements which explain both where “Hannibal” is coming from and where it is going.

On the origins of “Hannibal”: “Fuller is taking five pages of backstory about the infamous cannibal psychiatrist from Thomas Harris’ book Red Dragon and using it as the basis for the first couple seasons of his planned drama.”

On where the series is headed: Most of the action will be spent with Graham and Hannbial Lecter solving crimes together before any of his cannibalism and villainy comes to light.  “There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He’s not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock’s principle of suspense — show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it’s going to go boom. So the audience knows who Hannibal is so we don’t have to overplay his villainy. We get to subvert his legacy and give the audience twists and turns.”

On the focus of the first few seasons:“It really is a love story, for lack of a better description, between these two characters,” said Fuller.  “As Hannibal has said [to Graham] in a couple of the movies, ‘You’re a lot more like me than you realize.’ We’ll get to the bottom of exactly what that means over the course of the first two seasons. But we’re taking our sweet precious time.”

The first thirteen episode season has already been ordered by NBC, so it’s definitely happening – everything is now of course contingent on who is cast as Hannibal himself, which is I’m sure proving to be something of a monumental task.  “Hannibal” is hoped to have a seven year run, which is quite the commitment for anyone. 

More as we hear it, and meanwhile, sound off below on who you would cast if it was all up to you! Consider the field wide open and money no object.

“Go ahead and recast me.  I’m going to enjoy your liver very much.
Perhaps I’ll even branch out and have it with a nice Moscato, because I could really go for that sweet zip right now.”