Had Hannibal not been renewed by NBC for a third season (though another network may well have picked the show up), season two could have been a suitable series finale in which the bad guy gets away. No, that probably wouldn’t have been satisfying for the presumed main character of the show, profiler Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy), but the storyline conceivably could have led into the Thomas Harris novels and movie adaptations that we’re familiar with.
But that’s a moot point because we are indeed getting a third season of Hannibal, beginning June 4. NBC released a new trailer for the upcoming season on Thursday, and the story picks up right where season two left off. But this time, Lecter’s psychiatrist, Bedelia du Maurier (Gillian Anderson), is a major part of the storyline with Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) apparently turning her toward the dark side and tapping into her murderous impulses. (Does she follow Lecter’s cannibalistic tendencies? I guess we’ll find out.)
Oooh, there are some goodies in that trailer. We see Mason Verger (now played by Joe Anderson) after Lecter compelled him to destroy his face. More importantly, we see Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage, the Hobbit trilogy) otherwise known as the Tooth Fairy and the primary villain of Red Dragon.
Those who have followed Hannibal for its first two seasons and read interviews with showrunner Bryan Fuller know that the series will eventually adapt the stories seen in Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs (though that could be tricky, with the rights to the Clarice Starling character at another studio). Season four of the series would cover the Red Dragon story, though Dolarhyde will be introduced and established in season three.
As Caroline Dhavernas (who plays Dr. Alana Bloom) says in the trailer, this upcoming season of Hannibal is a blank slate, presumably a reset for the series as the FBI (led by Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford) pursues Lecter and Du Maurier in Europe. That’s pretty exciting, as we don’t really know where Fuller and the writing team will go. And just because producers plan to adapt previous storylines doesn’t mean they have to be strictly followed.
Hopefully, we get a little bit more action this time around than in season two, which was very much about the psychological interplay and battle between Lecter and Graham. It was compelling, but could be slow at times. Moving the story to Europe and perhaps making it more about the chase might give this season a bit of a boost in terms of drama and thrills. (Jeff Jensen’s review in Entertainment Weekly hints toward that direction.) Yet Hannibal has always been a character study, albeit a patient, beautifully shot one unfolding over 13-episode seasons. That’s very likely not going to change.
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