Going into its final half-season, NBC’s recently canceled Hannibal isn’t pulling any punches. As revealed during this evening’s “Pannibal” at Comic-Con, Bryan Fuller’s blood-spattered critical darling is about to completely upset its status quo, with a new trailer revealing an upcoming three-year time jump that will see its dapper, sociopathic hero finally locked away, and troubled profiler Will Graham married and retired.
To be fair, these plot revelations aren’t coming entirely out of left field; it’s been known for a while that the final part of the show’s third season would work as a direct adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, which features a married Graham and a locked-up Lecter. But it’s still a pretty huge jump, especially when you consider that when we last saw the pair, they were both strung up by their ankles at the mercy of terrifying, turtle-faced vengeance seeker Mason Verger. (A scene that in of itself featured a smaller time jump, because Hannibal does not care how lopsided the clock you keep track of its timeline with gets.)
The panel, which featured Fuller, star Hugh Dancy, and newcomer Richard Armitage, was an emotional affair, with everyone in the room—panelists included—wearing the flower crowns that have somehow become a traditional part of the fandom’s garb. Fuller didn’t have any big declarations to make about the show’s possible future—and chastised fans who booed mention of NBC, who he’s continually praised for letting him put three seasons of his dreamy, food-obsessed murder show on the air. He has continued to hint, though, that this is only the end of Hannibal’s TV incarnation, and that a feature is still a possibility.
“I think this finale wraps up the television series in a really good way,” the writer, director, and executive producer told Entertainment Weekly earlier today, while wearing a frankly amazing Star Wars tuxedo jacket that would likely earn either admiration or evisceration from his title character. “And also is a platform for launching a new version of telling the story.”
UPDATE: And now here’s the official trailer, complete with shots of Hannibal Lecter in a cage, and a very naked Richard Armitage: