While TV history plays host to a massive list of great shows that were canceled too soon, few recent cancellations seemed to hit the series' fan base harder than Bryan Fuller's Hannibal. During a recent appearance on noted horror filmmaker Mick Garris' Post Mortem podcast, Fuller shared a rather interesting plot idea for a potential Hannibal season 4.
Despite Hannibal's status as a critical darling -- and fiercely loyal cult of fans, often dubbed "Fannibals" -- the series never managed to captivate the masses at large, starting with pretty terrible ratings in season 1, then just dipping further from there. While NBC -- a very odd home for such a graphically violent show to begin with -- stuck with Hannibal for a lot longer than most industry pundits assumed that it would, the network canceled the series in 2015, after 3 seasons had been produced.
Since then, creator Fuller hasn't been shy about his desire to resume the Hannibal story, teasing fans with talk of a possible season 4 on a new outlet almost since NBC first dropped the cancellation ax. Check out Fuller's idea in full below.
“I just had a great idea for season 4… There’s an interesting next chapter in the relationship between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter that would be fascinating to unpack. I’ve shared it with the gentlemen and they’re both keen on it. There’s a whole storyline that I want to do with Katie Isabelle’s character Margot Verger, who we know is mother of the Verger heir and in control of the Verger meat packing industry. I wanted her to be like Joan Crawford at Pepsi saying Don’t F*ck with me fellas” and just humanize all of the Verger meat packing plants and turn them over to PETA approved… That would definitely be marbled through the season, Margot Verger taking down the meat industry as a hot, powerful lesbian.”
Introduced in season 2, Margot Verger was the sister of now deceased psychopath Mason Verger, a man in many ways even worse of a person than Hannibal. Thankfully, she prevailed over him in the end, after years of horrific abuse and some particularly nasty deeds done to her near the end of season 2. With Mason now gone, the stage would likely be set for the storyline Fuller describes above, with Margot taking full control of her family's empire.
That said, Fuller's tease right before that about the next chapter in Will and Hannibal's relationship is quite intriguing, especially that both actors involved are "keen" on it. Fuller has previously talked about crafting a season 4 that would allow Hannibal to remake The Silence of the Lambs in its own image, with or without the Clarice Starling character being able to be licensed from MGM. It's unclear if this latest idea for Will and Hannibal is in addition to the proposed Silence redo, or instead of it. For right now, though, nothing is certain, and Hannibal remains in stasis.
Next: Hugh Dancy Says Hannibal May Return in ‘Four or Five Years’
Source: Post Mortem (via Coming Soon)