Tao Okamoto Joins Hannibal Season 3 As Lady Murasaki

Bryan Fuller has some exciting things planned for Hannibal‘s hotly-anticipated third season, which includes some intriguing new characters from Thomas Harris’ books. While the series has deviated greatly from the source material thus far, Fuller has taken it upon himself to draw inspiration and story beats from novel like Hannibal and The Silence of the Lambs at will, and is tackling the prequel novel Hannibal Rising next.

That, of course, comes with the inclusion of Lady Murasaki, Hannibal’s mysterious Japanese aunt. According to Deadline, Murasaki will be played by The Wolverine and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice actress Tao Okamoto. The site describes her role as follows:

“Okamoto will play the dark and mysterious Lady Murasaki, who possesses an alluring and classical beauty with a dark secret.”

Hannibal Lecter’s relationship with Lady Murasaki is incredibly complicated, darkly twisted and even romantic. Judging by the way Fuller’s adapted Harris’ work for the series so far, we can fully expect their intense history to be on display and heavily mined for its psychological implications. In other words, Hannibal‘s third season can’t get here soon enough.