Around September of last year, the internet was buzzing with the possibility of a show surrounding horror icon Hannibal Lecter. Last month, NBC announced that they will be finally moving forward with a 13-episode season of Hannibal. This week, the network announced that the show has been mapped out for a seven-season run, potentially.
While I am a huge fan of the Hannibal Lecter series, most of the roles have been made so iconic at this point that the ability to recast most of them will be beyond difficult. A bias for Anthony Hopkins‘ famed version of the character is going to be hard to get past and I think it’s going to be very difficult for any actor to follow in his footsteps.
As of now, there is only one cast member confirmed and that is Hugh Dancy, who will be playing the famed FBI Agent Will Graham. Dancy isn’t necessarily a bad choice but once again, my bias for Edward Norton‘s portrayal is already there.
Casting worries aside, I still think there is potential for an amazing re-imagining of Hannibal Lecter. In a lot of ways, I feel that the horror world craves another series to go alongside FX’s excellent American Horror Story.
It’s also important to remember that Bryan Fuller is on board. Fuller is the man behind Pushing Daisies, one of the most ingenious television shows of the last decade. The fact it was canceled still angers me. He did great work with Pushing Daisies and it sounds like he has some interesting ideas for where he wants to take the Hannibal series.
“It’s before he was incarcerated, so he’s more of a peacock,” Fuller explains of Hannibal. “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.”
In a lot of ways, taking on Hannibal before he was “The Cannibal” is going to be an interesting undertaking. Audience members will fully begin to understand what makes this man tick and we will have a deeper understanding to the heinous crimes that will be trickled out throughout the series.
While casting is still up in the air, everything else in the series seems to be promising and hopefully it won’t be long before we have confirmation on who will be playing the iconic Hannibal Lecter.
Source: EW
