Followers of psychological horror-thriller collection and movies aren’t dealing with any shortages on what to observe, however only a few reveals have captivated audiences just like the sickeningly candy splatterfest and kaleidoscope of the weird that’s Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal. Impressed by Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels, the present follows troubled FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), who types an unlikely bond with forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). Sadly for Will and his slipping sanity, Hannibal additionally occurs to be a cannibalistic serial killer. The collection was a crucial darling and main awards-magnet, however viewership dropped off after three seasons and NBC canceled it. It was an upsetting finish for Hannibal’s devoted fanbase, however that hasn’t prevented the neighborhood, the creator, and the collection’ stars from vocally hoping Will and Hannibal may seem on silver screens once more. With the tenth anniversary of season 3’s finale arising on the finish of August, although, is it already too late for Hannibal season 4? Shortly after the finale concluded, Fuller summed as much as TVLine what it might take to cease him from preventing for a Hannibal revival: “It’s not over till I’m useless, so far as I’m involved.” With that in thoughts, I’m not giving up both — regardless of the seemingly unending limitations the collection faces. Given the gut-churning ending of season 3, it’s exhausting to not wish to know what occurs subsequent. [Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for the finale of Hannibal season 3.]
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Ever since Hannibal’s 2015 finale, “The Wrath of the Lamb,” concluded with Will and Hannibal falling off a cliff into the darkish ocean under, followers have been asking “What now?” For some viewers, Hannibal ended proper then and there. Will had lastly embraced each his pleasure for killing, within the homicide of Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage), and his undeniably romantic emotions for Hannibal. Sadly for Will and Hannibal each, Will got here to a surprising conclusion: “Can’t stay with him, can’t stay with out him.” So throwing himself into the ocean with Hannibal in his arms, successfully ending a lifetime of killing and discovering enjoyment in it earlier than it even started, appeared like one of the simplest ways to go. I’m an enormous Hannibal fan myself, and I discovered that conclusion extra than simply pleasant — it fully match the connection Fuller and his writers constructed up between Will and Hannibal throughout three seasons. Metaphorically talking, whereas Hannibal would usually attain out to embrace Will with one hand, he additionally had a knife within the different. Will leaning into this dynamic and adapting it for himself meant the 2 have been by no means going to have a steady relationship, regardless that they acknowledge they’ve by no means been so nicely “identified” or “seen” by anybody else. And whereas a life with Hannibal would have been emotionally fulfilling for Will, who usually struggled to suit into the function society anticipated of him as a person, husband, and father, it might come at the price of everybody else in his orbit, together with outdated buddies like psychiatrist-turned-murderer Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) and head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne). There was just one path left to tread: demise. Alternatively, Hannibal’s finale consists of an after-credits scene with Dr. Bedelia du Maurier, Hannibal’s psychiatrist and on-again-off-again lover, portrayed by the great and dynamic Gillian Anderson, sitting at a dinner desk. The digicam pans to indicate two different chairs on the desk, and two place settings alongside her personal. The meal for the night? Bedelia’s personal severed leg. The collection ends there, with Fuller explaining to Vulture that the scene was meant to characterize certainly one of two readings: Both Girl Murasaki or Uncle Robertus (two of Hannibal’s pseudo-relatives in Harris’ guide Hannibal Rising) had gone down the checklist of Hannibal’s enemies and picked Bedelia to serve up as a deal with, or Hannibal himself may need survived the autumn. With a teaser like that, it’s no marvel some followers are desperate to see extra.
Picture: NBC
However is it too late? All through the years, the pendulum on whether or not we’ll ever see Hannibal season 4 has swung backwards and forwards. Bryan Fuller, Hannibal’s showrunner and creator, has by no means stopped expressing his love for the TV collection, usually exhibiting off fan artwork and articles that includes the present’s characters by way of his Instagram account. He, Mads Mikkelsen, and Hugh Dancy have all expressed their need for Hannibal to return. Mikkelsen is booked and busy in roles throughout TV, movie, and even video video games, however he spoke to Enterprise Insider in 2024 in regards to the collection returning at some point. “[Hannibal has] received to occur finally, earlier than later, as a result of we’re not getting any youthful, proper? However the story itself can soar, it may have that hole, which is ok. So it is all about discovering a house for it, however that is nothing concrete on the market now.” Dancy, a collection common on NBC’s 2022 revival of the unique Legislation & Order, can also be right down to return. Talking to Collider in 2023, he mentioned, “We maintain saying, once we get requested, ‘Oh, we’d like to do it,’ which is true. Perhaps it’ll take certainly one of us to say, ‘I’ll completely by no means do a fourth season of Hannibal,’ however that might be a lie.” However whatever the forged’s adamant affection for the collection, a TV reboot isn’t comprised of love alone. Dancy himself acknowledged to Collider that making a season of TV isn’t low cost. “I’m speaking about the price of making a season of tv. For some time, it appeared just like the streamers have been gonna be everyone’s savior in that respect, however now there’s been a cutoff there. There are reveals which are watched by thousands and thousands of those who don’t make it previous a second season. So I do not know what that calculation is.” Then there’s the truth that the rights to numerous Hannibal characters from Harris’ novels are literally divided between three completely different homeowners. The De Laurentiis Firm owns the rights to Hannibal Lecter. This took place after Dino De Laurentiis snatched up the rights to Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel Purple Dragon, and produced an adaptation: Michael Mann’s 1986 movie Manhunter. That film didn’t accomplish that nicely, however De Laurentiis nonetheless retained the rights over Hannibal Lecter, in addition to a number of others who appeared within the movie, resembling Jack Crawford and Will Graham.
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As Fuller himself defined in a 2020 interview with Collider, Gaumont Worldwide Tv owns the rights to the remainder of the characters within the types they’ve within the Hannibal tv present, resembling Alana Bloom, ragebait journalist Freddie Lounds (Lara Jean Chorostecki), and many others. Whereas Alana Bloom and Freddie Lounds each appeared in Purple Dragon, they have been each males with wildly completely different tales and arcs than they’ve on the present, a lot in order that the Hannibal variations are legally thought-about completely different characters. Then there’s Thomas Harris, who owns the rights to any character who originated in his 1999 and 2006 novels, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, resembling Margot and Mason Verger. For Hannibal to return, all these entities, plus no matter new community or streaming platform the present appeared on, it might have to cooperate on the rights points. That isn’t inconceivable, nevertheless it’s a knotty drawback. I personally hope it may all be labored out. One of many greatest lacking items within the NBC seasons of Hannibal was the dearth of Clarice Starling, the important thing participant within the Hannibal Lecter novels, portrayed by Jodie Foster in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 Harris adaptation The Silence of the Lambs. As The Wrap defined in 2021, Clarice is lacking from Hannibal as a result of the rights to Harris’ books are break up between the De Laurentiis Firm and MGM, which purchased out Orion, the unique manufacturing firm and distributor of The Silence of the Lambs, and thus has the rights to Clarice and several other different characters included in that movie. Laurentiis, having seen Manhunter carry out badly, lent Orion the rights to make use of Hannibal free of charge. The corporate rapidly modified its tune when Silence did so nicely. These rights points have severely affected not simply Fuller’s potential Hannibal season 4, which Fuller had hoped would come with Clarice, however Alex Kurtzman’s 2021 CBS collection Clarice, which couldn’t point out Hannibal Lecter in any respect due to Hannibal first showing in Purple Dragon, and was canceled by default, having nowhere to go after rights negotiations failed. Talking to Collider in 2020, Fuller pointed to the rights problem and the necessity for community assist as the most important roadblocks to a Hannibal revival. “Martha De Laurentiis controls the rights for the Hannibal character. So if we wish to proceed telling the tales we have been telling, Gaumont must be concerned, Martha De Laurentiis must be concerned. Then in fact we’d like a community to platform us.” Fuller has mentioned Martha De Laurentiis supported his plan for a fourth season of the present — he thought-about her an ally in his hunt to revive the collection.
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“I’ve knocked on each door and rang each bell,” he informed Collider. “Martha and I, each couple of years, decide up our baggage and go door to door and see if anyone’s interested by revisiting. The largest hurdle is that we have been someone else’s present.” One other hurdle: Martha De Laurentiis’ 2021 demise left the rights points again in murky waters. And but, even with the tenth anniversary of the present’s finale arriving quickly, hope hasn’t dimmed fully. The collection’ cult following continues to be thriving. Its lively subreddit is on Reddit’s prime 2% communities checklist. Followers are nonetheless producing a ridiculously great amount of fanfiction across the present, with greater than 45,000 particular person works logged on Archive of Our Personal as of this writing. It even has its personal conference: Purple Dragon, named after Harris’ novel, launched in 2015. The 2025 version of the con introduced again important forged members Hugh Dancy and Lara Jean Chorostecki; Mads Mikkelsen and Caroline Dhavernas attended in 2024. The newest replace on a attainable season 4 got here this 12 months at Emerald Comedian-Con 2025, the place Mikkelsen and Dancy reunited to debate the collection and its future, and the place season 4 may take up the story. “It’s only a query of how a lot we soar [forward] in time,” Mikkelsen mentioned. “As a result of if we do a soar of six or seven years — it may be very fascinating, what these guys are doing now. So I don’t wish to see an ending, I wish to see a contemporary begin.” A contemporary begin isn’t completely out of the query. Even when Fuller doesn’t get the chance to make use of Clarice, there’s loads left to discover in Hannibal’s setting, notably in realizing that Fuller’s plans for season 4 concerned an much more intimate look into Will and Hannibal’s relationship, in addition to fleshing out the connection between wives Margot Verger (Katharine Isabelle) and Alana Bloom. We’re additionally residing in an age of nostalgia, the place studios assume reboots and revivals are almost assured to have baked-in audiences from the get-go, and so will enhance them heads and shoulders above new content material. (Simply take a look at Dexter: Resurrection, the most-streamed premiere in Showtime’s historical past.)
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Dexter and different latest collection revivals, like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return didn’t essentially face the sorts of rights points Hannibal is dealing with. However nonetheless, the considered a Hannibal season 4 stays scrumptious to ponder, regardless of the authorized roadblocks — and the sensible ones. As Hugh Dancy himself put it to Collider, the actors are getting older. “We could actually simply age out of it, and the individuals on-line will begin to say, ‘Nicely, really, that could be barely gross,” he mentioned. I extremely doubt the devoted Hannibal viewers would care as a lot as he thinks they’d. An older Hannibal and Will would imply a time-skip, positive. However that comes with its personal fascinating premise: What might a twisted love story like Hannibal and Will’s develop into in a world the place they survived and are older and wiser? One of many key themes I like about this present is the thought of being seen by somebody in a method that outsiders are merely unable to grasp. Will, dealing with psychological and bodily well being struggles as early as season 1, can’t assist however be drawn in by Hannibal’s manipulations, as a result of Hannibal sees the darkness inside him, acknowledges it as much like his personal, and calls out to it. Regardless of desirous to do good, to be good, Will can’t resist falling into Hannibal’s orbit. Now that the 2 males have dedicated homicide collectively, what does this imply for his or her relationship? Will they kill once more, or will Will push Hannibal to train restraint? But Will and Hannibal’s gothic love story isn’t the one factor I’d adore to see developed. Margot Verger and Alana Bloom, fondly often called the “Homicide Wives” to Will and Hannibal’s “Homicide Husbands,” are simply as big part of the story to discover. Season 3 touched on their relationship, with Alana falling for Margot whereas serving to Margot’s sadistic brother seize Hannibal and produce him to justice. The 2 went on to marry and have a baby collectively — the kid’s life solely being attainable as a consequence of Hannibal masking up Margot and Alana’s homicide of Mason. Hannibal has promised to take that baby from Alana as quickly as he’s in a position to. Will beforehand had a friendship and romantic entanglement with Alana, so what would that imply for his or her dynamic in season 4? Wouldn’t it be sufficient to stop Hannibal from murdering Alana? These unanswered questions will most likely hang-out me for the remainder of my life — or till Hannibal season 4 lastly occurs, in no matter kind it takes. If Fuller hasn’t given up on seeing it occur, then why ought to I?
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