New Hannibal posters plus some tasty details on its upcoming third season

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

We're slightly over a month until the third season of Hannibal is upon us and I couldn't be more excited. The show recently wrapped up production and creator Bryan Fuller is dropping details about the upcoming season. There's a lot riding on the success of this third season as NBC has moved the show back to its Thursday night time slot with the hope that the increased hype leading up to it will finally give Hannibal the viewership it deserves.

The move to a summer time slot had many fans upset as we'd typically be mid-way through the season by now, but Bryan Fuller offered up an explanation as to why the show was pushed back:

We barely, by the skin of our teeth, were able to produce the first two seasons with a lot of hard work, and a lot of people bending over backwards and contorting, because it’s so hard to do a crafted television show in eight days [per episode]. It was eight-day episodes, and then an additional day or two of second unit, and massive overtime. But coming into the third season, which is our most ambitious yet, it was essentially trying to squeeze all of that into seven days, with no second unit, and it blew up in everybody’s faces.

As much as I'd love to be watching the show right now I'd rather Fuller and the Hannibal team have the time to craft this amazing series at a pace which doesn't lead to rushed production. We'll get to some exciting details about the third season after you scroll through these three new Hannibal posters. Those wishing to stay completely pure may want to stop once you've looked at the posters.

Hannibal's head honcho also spoke with Digital Spy and offered up a few details on what we can expect once Hannibal returns on June 4th. The most surprising reveal was that the season premiere, titled Antipasto, will focus solely on the "years-long relationship" between Hannibal and Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson).

It really does feel like "What are we watching?" Will Graham isn't in it, none of the other familiar characters are in it, it's just Hannibal and Bedelia and their history over three different periods of time.

The audience won't be the only ones missing Will Graham, Lector himself will spend at least one of those time periods pining for the one who got away.

In that first episode all about Bedelia and Hannibal, there's just a hint of "Wouldn't this be better if it were me and Will Graham?" in terms of Hannibal thinking that, and what he misses. Because Bedelia will always be Hannibal's psychiatrist, she'll never be necessarily as intimate and passionate in her relationship with Hannibal as Will and Hannibal are.

Last month we learned that episode eight of the third season is titled The Great Red Dragon, which left us wondering whether the show would be dropping their cuisine-based titles for the second half of the season; turns out, they are. Episodes eight through thirteen will be named after William Blake's series of Great Red Dragon paintings. Bryan Fuller revealed that episode nine will be titled …And the Woman Clothed in Sun, episode ten will be …And the Woman Clothed with the Sun, with episode eleven going by …And the Beast from the Sea. Fuller didn't reveal the final two titles but they will likely be And the Number of the Beast is… and …666.

We all know that Richard Armitage will be playing Francis Dolarhyde in the second half of season three but what we don't know is that Dolarhyde will be treated more like a third lead character than a mere supporting player. We can expect to see as much of him as we do Will Graham and Hannibal Lector.

He is in the show almost as much as Hugh and Mads are in the second half of the season. So we really spend a lot of time with Dolarhyde, in a way that neither of the movies have had the real estate to. A lot of what we see with Dolarhyde is just him alone in a room struggling with his insanity. I wanted the audience to be so confused with this character because we get to know him, and we get to see this man who is suffering, from his mind eating him alive from the inside out.

Speaking of Will Graham, Fuller teased that his inevitable reunion with Hannibal Lector might be a little more emotional than we would think:

There's a scene that is so touching, when they're finally reunited and able to have a conversation. Mads and Hugh and their friendship are such amazing assets to the show, and you see all of that. It's like "It's really good to see you, but this is a terrible situation that we're in, and you're actually a terrible person, but I've found a way to forgive you in the way you forgive a shark for being a shark."

It's no secret that Hannibal has struggled in the ratings department; the chances of its renewal has always been up in the air but thankfully we've been fortunate enough to have the show return each time. While Hannibal obviously hasn't been renewed for a fourth season yet (fingers crossed) Bryan Fuller suggested that we pay very close attention to the first seven episodes of season three if we'd like to get a sense on how a possible fourth season would look.

It felt like a breath of fresh air not being in Quantico, and not having FBI scenes talking about the murder clues. It was so liberating that if we do get a fourth season, there's going to be a lot more of that than there will be anything FBI-oriented. It will probably be our most serialized season thus far, and the first half of season three was really an experiment of "does this work on our show?"

Season three of Hannibal kicks off on June 4th on NBC.