Diabolical mastermind Bryan Fuller torments viewers with possible fourth season of Hannibal
Like a cruel criminal mastermind, turning his victims’ very hopes against them, Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller has begun tormenting his fans with hints that the show might somehow survive its ritual execution at the hands of NBC. Talking to Variety, Fuller discussed Hannibal’s hopes of resurrection on one of the streaming services, favoring Amazon due to its previous relationship with the show:
“I know there have been discussions on a couple of fronts with Netflix and Amazon. But I believe our deal with Amazon precludes a Netflix component so I think Netflix, who has expressed interest and has expressed great enthusiasm for the show… I don’t think contractually with our Amazon contract, they can pick up the show.”
Unfortunately for the now 60,000 or so “fannibals”—a self-applied sobriquet that would likely earn its adherents a spot on the title character’s menu if he were ever to hear it—who have signed that petition to save the show, the loss of NBC’s funding structure, including the international connections that provided much of the show’s budget, will serve as a serious impediment to revival. “Without an NBC component, it’s a little complicated,” Fuller said, while noting that talks were still ongoing. “Even some of our international partners, because there’s no NBC component, will pass on a fourth season.”
Fuller also expressed concerns that a third party might try to alter the show or make it feel like “someone else’s,” which would apparently kill his interest in the program faster than a woman being impaled on a ceremonially placed stag’s head, to pick at random just one of the dozens of horrible images Fuller has been kind enough to gift to the world.
All that being said, the #SaveHannibal hashtag has been used roughly 287,000 times in the last week—a number rivaling the amount of people the critically beloved but always struggling show often managed to pull in as live viewers—and Fuller still seems open to continuing the project, despite his commitment to Starz’s upcoming adaptation of American Gods. And, because this is a discussion of a beloved-but-canceled TV show in 2015, the writer and director couldn’t let his little game of cat and mouse end without one more tantalizing hint: “The planned arc for Season 4 is a very exciting one, so I would love to see the show continue, whether it be as a series or even condensed into a thriller as a film, as well.” To be fair, it’s worked before.