In Bryan Fuller’s mind, Hannibal isn’t done yet. Despite being canceled by NBC in 2015, Fuller, who developed the show from the books written by Thomas Harris and was an executive producer, has revealed plans for what he’d do if he got to do more episodes. According to Entertainment Weekly, future installments of Hannibal would explore Silence of Lambs, the most popular of Harris’ novels.
“We still hope that something can be worked out where we continue telling Hannibal Lecter stories and see The Silence of the Lambs in a way that the book hasn’t been represented. I think the film adaptation is a perfect film, but there’s a lot of interesting nooks and crannies in that book to explore in a television series,” Fuller said.
Despite the series finale episode, where Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will (Hugh Dancy) fall off a cliff together, the two are alive and well, at least in Fuller’s mind.
“There weren’t going to be any bodies found floating in that lagoon. And the whole point of showing Gillian Anderson sitting at a table with two additional place settings and her leg on the table was there was a big splash and dinner guests are coming.”
Fuller said that a revival of the show doesn’t have to be a long season and that he’s fine with doing a miniseries on a streaming site. “I think, ideally for the cast, it would be as a miniseries, here and there. Let’s do six to eight episodes of that, and six to eight episodes over here. And do it as an irregular thing,” Fuller said.
Dancy and Mikkelsen have already expressed their interest about reprising their roles in any future revivals of the show.
If Fuller does continue with his ideas of a Silence of the Lambs storyline, he’d have big shoes to fill. The original film, which premiered in February 1991, was a box-office smash, earning 272.2 million dollars over its run. The movie starred Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a trainee at the FBI, who must talk to Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to get information about a serial killer.
Silence of the Lambs won the big five Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hopkins, Best Actress for Foster and Best Adapted Screenplay, making it one of only three movies to accomplish this feat.