#What’s Holding Back the Hannibal Revival Series or Possible Reunion Movie?

Ever since Hannibal was unceremoniously cancelled back in 2015, fans have been wondering if we will ever again have the pleasure of eavesdropping on the surprisingly steamy philosophical conversations between a neurotic FBI profiler and a hyper-intelligent cannibal. Well, Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller has now provided some clarity on whether we will ever be gifted a revival of the series, or even a movie.

“Martha De Laurentiis controls the rights for the Hannibal character. [Gaumont International Television], who produced the Hannibal series that we worked on, has the rights to those characters and those situations. So if we want to continue telling the tales we were telling, Gaumont needs to be involved, Martha De Laurentiis needs to be involved. Then of course we need a network to platform us.”

So, it sounds like it’s a rights issue that will need to be properly navigated in order for the adventures of the empathetic Will Graham and his cannibal companion to continue. But, should these multiple hurdles be jumped successfully, Fuller is raring to go, stating that he has been involved in several hypothetical conversations regarding the direction Hannibal could go in should the show be brought back. And it has been stated that this proposed miniseries will be based on The Silence of the Lambs.

“I wish there was something that was definitive. I’ve had conversations with Hugh and Mads and the cast, in terms of like, ‘This is what we would do if we were allowed to come back.’ There’s some ideas that I’m very excited about that continue the strange trajectory of season 3. But I have not been approached. I’ve knocked on every door and rang every bell. Martha and I, every couple of years, pick up our bags and go door to door and see if anybody’s interested in revisiting.”

Fuller added that really, all he wants is to work with actor Hugh Dancy again, with the Hannibal creator saying, “I just want to work with Hugh again. I would do whatever anybody offered me in any capacity.”

Thankfully, rather than make things awkward, Dancy reciprocates saying, “I agree with Bryan Fuller. I would defer to Bryan’s sense of what would work if the story that he wanted to tell and where he ended up taking it could work in that format. Obviously, this is a wildly hypothetical question. But in the hypothetical, absolutely. I’m in, basically.”

The only question left then is, if everyone wants to do it, why isn’t this Silence of the Lambs TV remake happening? No doubt fans would love to see the return of Hannibal, with the series originally running for 3 seasons before cancellation. The show focusses on the relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist destined to become Graham’s most cunning enemy and at the same time, the only person who can understand him.

Hugh Dancy stars as Will Graham, a gifted criminal profiler and hunter of serial killers, with Mads Mikkelsen taking on the role of Hannibal Lecter. The series was praised for its take on the early life of the infamous serial killer before the events of The Silence of the Lambs, with many feeling that Mikkelsen’s depiction of the complicated cannibal was even better than that of the great Anthony Hopkins. This comes to us from Collider.

Topics: Hannibal, Silence of the Lambs