Cast and creators of Hannibal appeared at San Diego Comic-Con – possibly for the last time – to discuss season 3, the upcoming Red Dragon arc, and if the show’s death knell is truly tolling.
‘Hannibal’ SDCC panel highlights
Hannibal attended San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday with a panel in Ballroom 20 comprising of executive producers Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis and cast members Hugh Dancy (our beloved Will Graham) and Richard Armitage, the long-anticipated Francis Dolarhyde. The antlers and flower crowns were plentiful and spirits were high for this fan-favorite event known officially as the “Pannibal.”
‘It Takes Two To Catch One’
The panel kicked off with a first look at an extended trailer for the rest of season 3, focusing on Richard Armitage’s Francis Dolarhyde character, the serial killer initially known as the Tooth Fairy. We see him going through the process of getting his infamous William Blake back tattoo to become the Red Dragon. The trailer also offers a sneak peek at what Hannibal’s existing leads are up to, touching on Hannibal Lecter being imprisoned and declared insane, his mentorship of the Tooth Fairy, and his reunion with Will Graham in order to catch the same killer he’s been admiring.
Fans were also excited to see a clip of Zachary Quinto’s guest-starring role as an ex-patient of Hannibal’s, shouting at Gillian Anderson’s Bedelia, and the introduction of Dolarhyde’s blind love interest, Reba McClane. Ominously, we hear Hannibal telling Dolarhyde “Save yourself. Kill them all.” Watch the San Diego Comic-Con Hannibal trailer below:
Cancellation – is this the end?
The Hannibal fandom has always been a surprisingly light-hearted one, but the biggest concern on the minds of the fans had to be the show’s recent cancellation by NBC and the fact that it has not yet been picked up by another traditional or online network. It’s unsurprising that this pressing matter was the first thing that moderator Jeff Jensen wanted to address, and unfortunately there are still no solid answers about whether season 3 will be the end for Hannibal or if we should still hold out hope.
Showrunner Bryan Fuller made sure to praise the network for supporting the show for as long as possible: “NBC allowed us to do some crazy shit for three years. We should applaud NBC.” He also discussed the different options they’re pursuing, including possibility of a feature film as a follow-up, and confirmed that both Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy are committed to continuing on with Hannibal in whatever format possible. Cross your fingers!
Time Jump Time
We found out that the second half of season 3 will take place around three years after next week’s present day episode. We’ll see a Will Graham that has retreated from the FBI and all things Hannibal Lecter. He’s attempted to gain some inner peace, and found himself a life (and a wife!) but don’t expect the domestic retreat to last long.
Quite a bit was also revealed about Richard Armitage’s role as the Tooth Fairy, the infamous killer who brings Will and Hannibal back together to solve one last case. This storyline, set to begin in episode 8, is something that Hannibal has been setting up since its very beginning, and since Bryan Fuller is such a fan of the source material, he’s had to carefully check which aspects or quotes from the original Red Dragon novel he’s already used in past episodes of the show.
The Great Red Dragon
Richard Armitage was thrilled to join the Hannibal cast onstage and discuss his creation of the Dolarhyde/Tooth Fairy/Red Dragon character. Armitage also used the novel to inspire his performance, stating that his starting point for everything about Dolarhyde was that he was a man who was uncomfortable in his own skin. Both Will and Hannibal will feel drawn to Dolarhyde because he’ll remind each one of the other — Will Graham will see Francis Dolarhyde as a version of Hannibal Lecter he could save, and Hannibal will see Dolarhyde as a version of Will that he could corrupt.
Fuller and Armitage also discussed the dialling back of Dolarhyde’s sexual deviance, with the actor mentioning the character’s innocent childlike mind and the showrunner reminding the audience of his promise to not tell unnecessary rape stories and that Dolarhyde’s crimes would be more of a violent assault on the family unit.
“I think you should only do a rape story when you can dedicate a lot of real estate to telling the story of what that violation means to everyone involved,” he explained. “It’s there if you want to see it, but I didn’t want to see it myself.”
One Third/One Third/One Third
When asked about balancing Hannibal’s self-admitted pretentious art film aesthetic with actual plot, Bryan Fuller couldn’t speak highly enough of the original novels, and shared some of his process for writing.
He revealed that for most scenes, they’re always using their secret formula of “a third, a third, a third:” one third dedication to Thomas Harris’s prose, which Fuller called “purple and bloated and lovely and amazing,” explaining that some of the show’s pretentious lines were quotes from the books that were never intended as dialogue to be spoken aloud; one third real psychology and current medicine or theories that could realistically fit the behaviors of the characters, and one third “special sauce” of what’s actually happening with their characters, their personalities and their stories.
Hugh Dancy went on to joke about times that the cast and writers have reviewed scenes past episodes and been very confused by their own work — “There are some scenes we were watching where I’m like ‘what did we mean?’ I thought I understood it when I was saying it!” Dancy also spoke about the confusion surrounding Will’s hallucinations of Abigail this season and what other options might have been open to him, including running away with Hannibal to Italy. It sounds like that our hero wouldn’t have been comfortable with any option: “At the end of season 2, there was no workable outcome for him.”
Fannibals Forever
There was no shortage of love between the show and the fandom — that’s what Comic-Con is all about, but Hannibal truly means it. From the entire hall holding up signs reading “Fannibals Forever” to Fuller inducting newbie Richard Armitage with his very own flower crown, Martha De Laurentiis’s delighted discovery of the impact of fans on social media and Hugh Dancy’s honest admission that if the show ends, it’s the fannibals that everyone would miss most.
“To be part of something that was so embraced and engaged with, with such open-hearted enthusiasm […] the fannibals go beyond the television series, it’s a community that found each other.” Bryan Fuller summed up the support of fans as “the best hug you could imagine.”