As disheartening — though not surprising — as the news of NBC canceling Hannibal after three seasons may have been, the announcement didn’t necessarily seem dire to fans of the show (#Fannibals) because it seemed likely that the series could find a home at another network.
When the show was in danger of being canceled after its first season, producer Bryan Fuller seemed extremely confident that Hannibal would at least land at a streaming outlet like Netflix or Amazon. (Amazon already carries on-demand reruns of the show.) But after two more low-rated seasons and an unclear creative direction (one which may even be turning off regular fans), Hannibal doesn’t carry the appeal that it once might have.
Consequently, Fuller tweeted some bad news Monday night to fans still hoping for Amazon or Netflix to swoop in and save the series.
@MikeBarbre I’M SORRY TO REPORT @amazon AND @netflix HAVE PASSED ON #HANNIBAL S4 BUT WE’RE STILL INVESTIGATING POSSIBILITIES
— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) July 6, 2015
That would seem to be a virtual death blow for Hannibal, along with the cast being released from its contracts last week and Fuller now devoted to season one of American Gods on Starz. As HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall writes, the streaming networks may have passed on the show because they either don’t already have rights to previous seasons or may prefer to produce their own series in-house.
Additionally, though Hannibal is produced by Gaumont International Television, a French company, the show had much more value in foreign markets when it was also shown on an American broadcast network. Streaming channels like Netflix don’t carry that same weight overseas.
https://youtu.be/2HW9rtFYsEw
Sepinwall also raises another option, one that could be the most likely if Hannibal does indeed have a chance to live on, which would be a limited series or movie. A run of six to eight episodes, such as we’ve seen with True Detective or what Fox is doing with its X-Files revival might be more feasible, and result in a tighter, more focused story than what Fuller has provided during Hannibal‘s past two seasons.
But if those narratives would essentially be remakes of the Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs films, would there really be that much interest outside of the show’s devoted fanbase? (The Red Dragon story has already been told twice, between 1986’s Manhunter and Brett Ratner’s 2002 movie.)
Though it would be fun to see Mads Mikkelsen build on his performance as Hannibal Lecter (and likewise with Hugh Dancy as Will Graham) with familiar character arcs, much of the interest presumably stemmed from Fuller and his team being able to devote more time to tell those stories expansively. But how much of an audience would there be for such endeavors, considering that the series had a rather limited appeal?
[HitFix]
