Hannibal showrunner talks about bringing show back as mini-series

One of Bryan Fuller’s most beloved shows, Hannibal, was cancelled by NBC after just three seasons due to poor ratings, but the showrunner thinks he may have found a way to bring it back for a fourth season.

Fuller appeared on Blumhouse Pictures’ Shockwave Podcast to talk about his career and when the subject of Hannibal came up, the showrunner confirmed that he wasn’t giving up hope on the project just yet. According to Fuller, the rights to Silence of the Lambs revert back in August 2017, and he has been talking to producer Martha De Laurentiis about acquiring the rights for a mini-series continuation.

“Martha De Laurentiis and I have talked about how to bring it back,” Fuller said. “I think, ideally for the cast, it would be as a mini-series, here and there. Let’s do 6 to 8 episodes of that, and 6 to 8 episodes over here. And do it as an irregular thing.”

Fuller said they always wanted to incorporate elements of The Silence of the Lambs into Hannibal, but unfortunately could never work out a deal over the rights. Still, Fuller added that there were plenty of “nooks and crannies” the creative team wanted to explore from the original novel that the film adaptation, which garnered Anthony Hopkins an Oscar for his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, never used.

“We would have loved to have had Silence of the Lambs and still hope that something can be worked out that we get to continue telling Hannibal Lecter’s story and see Silence of the Lambs in a way that the book hasn’t been represented,” Fuller said. “I think the film adaptation is a perfect film, but there’s a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore in a television series. I hope we get to tell the story.”

Hannibal went off the air in 2015, much to the displeasure of fans. Since then, the cast has been involved in a variety of projects; Mads Mikkelsen most recently starred in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and is working on Hideo Kojima’s upcoming game, Death Stranding. Gillian Anderson is still working on The Fall and Fuller is running Starz’ adaptation of American Gods.

Fuller did not mention if he has talked to NBC, or any other network, about his idea.