A Hannibal season 4 renewal remains a wish for fans of the cult series, and creator Bryan Fuller recently revealed what would take to make this happen.
Speaking with Collider, Fuller expressed excitement over the release of Hannibal season 1 to 3 on Netflix. But the showrunner hopes that subscribers of the streaming platform will help push the long-planned fourth season.
“What I love about Netflix platforming the show now is there’s an opportunity for it to be seen as a Netflix show and maybe that will reconfigure their appetite, so to speak,” Fuller said.
An issue about who holds the rights
Fuller also said that he’d had many conversations with stars Hugh Dancy (Will Graham) and Mads Mikkelsen (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) about doing the show again. The actors are mostly on board, but the biggest factor holding back a Hannibal season 4 renewal is actually beyond Fuller’s control.
“Martha De Laurentis controls the rights for the Hannibal character,” Fuller said. “Gaumont International Television, who produced the Hannibal series that we worked on, has the rights to those characters and those situations.”
De Laurentis told Fuller a few years ago that if there’s a hint of interest in revisiting the show from the audience, then they could be on board. This is why Fuller is pinning a lot of hope for the Netflix release.
A different Hannibal vibe
Meanwhile, Fuller also revisited the development of the show in another interview with Collider. NBC wanted a different kind of vibe for Hannibal. The network bosses wanted someone like John Cusack to play the iconic Hannibal Lecter, and they brushed aside Mads Mikkelsen’s casting for many months.
“I think the network wanted somebody that was much more poppy, much more mainstream, much more American I think in some ways,” the creator said. “We were dealing with a very American network that wanted a very American actor to sell to American audiences, and all the creatives on the show wanted somebody who was the best person for the role.”
Hannibal stayed afloat on NBC for three seasons despite the low ratings because it had a cult following, and it received critical acclaim. It also didn’t cost the network a lot of money because of the international rights deal with Gaumont Television.
Originally, the series was planned for seven seasons and would also touch on the more popular story of The Silence of the Lambs. Fuller said that if the chance is there, then this will likely be the focus of Hannibal season 4.
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