Oh, Hannibal. The axe that loomed over the beautiful, bloody show’s head for the last three years finally dropped when NBC cancelled the series last month (insert sad Will Graham gif here). Despite Netflix and Amazon’s decisions to pass on reviving the series, fans are still holding out hope that they’ll get to see Bryan Fuller’s gruesome adventure hour continue on in a new home.

For what may well be their farewell panel, stars Hugh Dancy and Richard Armitage joined executive producer Martha di Laurentis  and Fuller, a.k.a. “Hannibal’s master chef”  on the Ballroom 20 stage at Comic-Con to screen a first-look trailer at Red Dragon and the remainder of season three, talk about the possibility of continuing Will and Hannibal’s story elsewhere, their desire to make a film, and share in a lovefest with the loyal fannibals. 

Footage

They kicked off the panel with an extended trailer for what’s to come in the last half of Hannibal’s third season. And you can watch the whole thing for yourself above.

As always it looks completely stunning, and Armitage is clearly set to match the show’s high bar for exceptional performances as Francis Dolarhyde. He is bringing a sort of agonized physicality to the character with his forceful, spastic movements and misanthropic grimace.

The trailer mostly teased that storyline, and Dolarhyde’s transformation into the Red Dragon - we see him preparing physically, drenched in sweat. We see a tattoo gun dripping in the red ink that will become his iconic full-body tattoo. We see him in a dental shop, purchasing his snuggled dentures. And finally we see the money shot as he disrobes and kneels before a portrait of the Red Dragon, his entire back covered in red red ink.

Finally we see Will and Hannibal, and it appears they’re about do a mini-riff on Silence of the Lambs  - the one Hannibal Lecter story Fuller has never landed the rights to. In his pursuit of Dollarhyde, Will seeks Hannibal’s help, profiling Dolarhyde in collaboration with Hannibal locked up on the other side of a glass prison cell. Much like everything on the show, this feels like the story we all know and love, but with it’s trademark Bryan Fuller twist. 

Panel Highlights

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  First up is the elephant in the room. The show is cancelled. Massive boos erupt from the audience.  Fuller responds, “NBC has allowed us to do some crazy shit for 3 years. We should applaud.”
• There's no renewal/rescue news. They’re still looking for a network, and they’re thinking about making a movie!
• Hugh and Mads Mikkelson are very committed and would love to continue with it. Sounds like there’s definitely going to be a wait before we see anything, even if it comes together.
• Netfilx couldn’t do it because of the Amazon deal. Amazon would have done it, but they wanted to do it very quickly and Fuller wanted to write all the scripts first.
• Fuller on Will and Hannibal’s relationship to Francis Dolarhyde: “Will Graham is looking at Dolarhyde as a Hannibal he can save, and Hannibal is looking at him as a Will Graham he can corrupt.”

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  Everyone on the panel put on flower crowns. Armitage and Dancy were unsure what they mean and Fuller explained that the flower crowns represent the passion and beauty of the fandom and  appreciation of their support.
• Armitage describes Dolarhyd as “A man who’s very uncomfortable in his own skin - he’s trying to shed his own skin and become something more powerful.”
• He saw Manhunter years ago, but didn’t remember it and didn’t revisit the other adaptation of Red Dragon to avoid being influenced by them. He knew there were iconic moments that they would come back to and probably come to a similar place.
• Fuller says there are three things that every Hannibal scene needs. It should be 1/3 Thomas Harris, 1/3 real psychology and what is happening in psych studies now, 1/3 their own special sauce.

Audience Q&A

• Fuller says he likes emotional plotting instead of “plot-plotting”. Sometimes he re-watches the scene and goes “What were we doing? Wow, that’s pretentious.”
• There will, in fact, be short shorts in their Red Dragon story. How short? “They’re a little too short for me.” - Ermitage
• If they had to die one of the ways featured in the show, what would they chose? Fuller wouldn’t mind being made into a cello. Dancy said, “Maybe the guy in the tree - to be beautiful.”

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  According to Dancy, the world where Annabelle, Will and Hannibal were on the run together was never an option because Will is too divided for that.
• If Fuller was going to cameo he would want to be a death tablet.
• Fuller lists David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubric, Tony Scott - in particular, The Hunger, as influences. Syas he loves “visually aggressive” filmmakers.
• What has been the best part of the experience on Hannibal? Fuller says the fannibals and the overwhelming passion and support of the community. Close second is the cast. Hugh says that it was an amazing experience to be a part of a project that was so engaged with, as well as his collaborators on the cast and crew.
• Fuller talks about the brilliant scoring from composer Brian Reitzell. He says it’s the first time he’s worked with a composer where he’s completely been hands off. They decided early on that the music couldn’t be melodic and needed an “insidious capacity to get under your skin”. Says Reitzell is “truly inspired”. There’s lots of fun new music coming for the Red Dragon arc.

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  Siouxsie of Siouxsie and the Banshees composed a song for the season finale.
• Fuller calls interacting with fans on social media “the warmest hug you can ever imagine”
• For the series, they adapted Dolarhyde’s sexual deviancy to make it a global assault on the family instead of just the woman of the family.  They minimized and buried that aspect of him.
• Fuller continues to say that you should only do a rape story when you can explore exactly what that means to everyone in that situation.
• Says Madz and Hugh are opinionated in a wonderful way for a show runner because it elevates the storytelling. He gets inspired after conversations with them. They’re very collaborative, and it was the same when Richard came on board. One of his favorite parts of working on the show is the actors who “have his back”.