Hannibal is one of the most unjustly cancelled shows of the last ten years. The three seasons brought us a powerful and compelling psychological tug-of-war between Mads Mikkelsen’s monstrous Hannibal Lecter and Hugh Dancy’s broken Will Graham. By the time the final episode aired, Mikkelsen’s Lecter had become the definitive version of the character for me, beating out even Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-winning performance.
Since the show wrapped up, nothing has lived up to its eye-popping style and artistic gore, and now audiences who didn’t catch Hannibal the first time around can check it out for themselves. The entire series recently landed on Netflix and has quickly become very popular. But attentive fans have noticed that Hannibal on Netflix is subtly different from how it looked on Amazon Prime.
Most notable is an increase in brightness. Hannibal is a dark show in general, often taking place in locations with low and dramatic lighting. This led to some criticism on its original airing that the show was so dark viewers couldn’t see what was going on. Netflix appear to have addressed this now, with the colors, brightness and contrast of the series looking richer than ever before.
Hopeful fans have been wondering whether Netflix putting so much care into the show might be a hint that they’re resurrecting it. The thinking goes that they wouldn’t bother with the effort if they didn’t have future plans for more Hannibal. A fourth season is unlikely but still possible, with the cast and creative team all indicating that they’d love to return for more.
One big obstacle in Hannibal‘s way is CBS’ Clarice. This series will star Rebecca Breeds as Silence of the Lambs‘ Clarice Starling and is positioned as a sequel to the 1991 movie. There’s no indication whether Hannibal Lecter will appear, though you’d imagine he’ll inevitably factor into the plot. And if they’re searching for an actor to play him, Mikkelsen is right there. Clarice is expected to air in early 2021, but if you haven’t seen Hannibal, I would absolutely recommend it now that it’s on Netflix. It’s bloody brilliant.
