Although there seems to be another new show to binge just about every week over on Netflix, the platform has revived some love for a few older shows this year, such as Community, which dropped at the perfect time back in April, and Hannibal, which got fans talking again after it joined the streaming site over the summer. The Silence of the Lambs prequel series starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy was cancelled back in 2015, but we’ve never forgotten just how much it didn’t deserve to be.
Now that Hannibal has gained additional popularity over on streaming, Mads Mikkelsen and the show’s creator, Bryan Fuller, have been discussing the possibility of a fourth season all over again. Now we’ve been down this road before, and Fuller recently said while he’s ready to make it and has been doing what he can to let it be known, he has ‘not been approached.’ But we can still dream, right? Mads Mikkelsen teased this to Indiewire if Season 4 ever did happen:
I don’t think it’s a secret that if it does happen, we would love to go into Silence of the Lambs. That’s always been an issue because they didn’t have the rights for that book. But that’s obviously the most famous part and we’d love to go in there. We’d obviously switch it around a little and do all kinds of crazy stuff with it. That story is so interesting and the characters in it are as interesting. We’d switch around the genders and maybe even put two characters into one. We would love to find someone to play Buffalo Bill. That’s going to be tough. We found a Hannibal, so it’s possible.
The idea being thrown around for a fourth season of Hannibal would involve adapting The Silence of the Lambs, previously explored in Jonathan Demme’s Best Picture Winner. And Mads Mikkelsen wants to see the serial killer Buffalo Bill, who Clarice seeks advice from Hannibal to hunt down. Buffalo Bill is a pretty intense villain (to say the least) who murders women and skins them to make himself a “woman suit.” Though in a modern context, I’d imagine there would be some hurdles for a production to jump over in terms of updating the character’s inherent negative eye on transsexual people.
Another interesting tidbit from Mads Mikkelsen’s recent update on Hannibal is who he’d like to see play Buffalo Bill. He named Michael Pitt, who played Mason, the twin brother to Hannibal’s patient Margot Verger in Season 2, before he left the show and was replaced by Joe Anderson the following season. Mikkelsen said he would “love” to see him in the part if he hadn’t already been in the series otherwise.
Though as Mads Mikkelsen does note, the continued issue with Hannibal Season 4 implementing elements of Silence of the Lambs is that they do not have the rights to adapt the book. That’s worked out nicely for the show thus far, as it's been instead inspired by Thomas Harris’ Hannibal novels. A more recent roadblock for Hannibal’s plans is CBS’ upcoming series that will focus on Clarice after the events of Silence of the Lambs.
Mads Mikkelsen just officially signed on to replace Johnny Depp as the Fantastic Beasts franchise's new Grindelwald. We’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend for Hannibal updates if they come, but in the meantime, the show’s three seasons are available to stream on Netflix.
