13 Fascinating Insights About Hannibal

In 2013, producer Martha De Laurentiis, writer Bryan Fuller, and a skilled team of actors and crew embarked on reinventing the Hannibal Lecter narrative. It was a bold move, given how firmly the character had been defined by Sir Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal and his presence across four novels and five films. Yet Fuller had a concept no one else had dared explore. He envisioned the tale of the cannibal psychiatrist and the empathetic profiler who eventually caught him as a story of two lives intertwined by a shared madness. Audiences were taken by surprise, receiving one of the most visually captivating, stylish, and psychologically complex horror series ever to air on television.

Though Hannibal only ran for three seasons, it earned immense critical praise and developed a dedicated fanbase called “Fannibals,” many of whom continue to hope for the series’ return. With its lasting impact still fresh in the public’s mind, even more than five years after its debut, here are 13 compelling facts about the making of Hannibal.

1. BRYAN FULLER SECURED THE JOB DUE TO A DESTINED AIRPLANE JOURNEY.

Bryan Fuller has always been passionate about horror and a long-time admirer of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter novels. However, he never specifically aimed for the Hannibal role. In fact, he wasn’t even aware of the opportunity until it unexpectedly found him during a flight to New York City. Seated next to an old friend, Katie O’Connell, who was the newly appointed CEO of Gaumont Film Company’s U.S. TV division, Fuller learned that O’Connell was working on a Hannibal series. She asked him if he thought there was a show worth pursuing—not to offer him the job, but simply to get his perspective. Fuller, intrigued, asked if Gaumont had the rights to Will Graham, the protagonist from Harris’s Red Dragon, because he was drawn to a particular line in the novel that suggested a much deeper connection between Graham and Lecter, one that had yet to be fully explored by audiences and readers.

“Having read the books, I knew that Will Graham’s character in the literature is far more psychologically intricate than what was depicted in the film adaptations. I thought, 'This is a golden opportunity to delve into that line from Red Dragon where Hannibal Lecter says, ‘You caught me because you’re as insane as I am.’ That line opens a whole world that explores their strange friendship,” Fuller said. “If we’re dealing with a Hannibal Lecter who is both a practicing psychiatrist and a cannibal, out in the world among us, he becomes a wolf in psychiatrist’s clothing. And imagine how terrifying that would be for someone like Will Graham, who’s uniquely vulnerable to his own psychology, to have someone like Lecter with access to the very buttons of his mind.”

Fuller’s reflections on the complex relationship between Hannibal and Will Graham sparked the idea for a Red Dragon prequel, which would also serve as a blending of all Harris’s writings on the iconic character. This vision eventually led to a crucial meeting with Martha De Laurentiis of the Dino De Laurentiis Company, followed by another meeting at NBC, which ultimately resulted in the show being greenlit.

2. THE SERIES STARTED OUT AS A CLARICE STARLING STORY WITH MGM.

Before Bryan Fuller came into the picture and Gaumont Television began developing the series, Martha De Laurentiis had already been contemplating a new Hannibal Lecter project. However, she wasn’t interested in creating yet another film based on the works of Thomas Harris. Fuller’s concept ultimately focused on the dynamic between Lecter and Graham, but De Laurentiis noted that before that, there was an idea to revisit the pairing of Lecter and FBI agent Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs.

“We were actually considering an idea—with MGM, who owns the Clarice character from the Orion Pictures library that produced Silence of the Lambs—about exploring something with Clarice and Hannibal set after the events of Silence of the Lambs, but we didn’t pursue it very far,” De Laurentiis explained. “In fact, I thought perhaps Hannibal would be a very minor character and might eventually disappear, which didn’t feel right for the character of Hannibal Lecter.”

Through her collaboration with Katie O’Connell at Gaumont, De Laurentiis connected with Bryan Fuller, and that partnership eventually gave birth to the Hannibal series.

3. FULLER INITIALLY PLANNED FOR A SEVEN-SEASON ARC.

Although Red Dragon was a key influence on the direction of the show due to its exploration of the Lecter/Graham dynamic, Fuller and his team chose to set Hannibal in the years leading up to that story. Their goal was to show audiences what Lecter was like as “a practicing psychiatrist and a practicing cannibal,” as Fuller described it. This approach involved reading between the lines of Harris’s novel to develop the relationship that would ultimately drive the characters toward the events of Red Dragon and lead Hannibal into his life as a captured serial killer and later an escaped fugitive. The series’ mash-up quality allowed Fuller to explore many elements of Lecter’s life outside Harris’s timeline, but at the outset, Fuller envisioned a seven-season plan that would adapt the first three Lecter novels and then move beyond them.

“When you reach season four, that’s where you dive into the literature. Season four would adapt Red Dragon, season five would take place during the The Silence of the Lambs period, season six would focus on the Hannibal era, and season seven would resolve the ending of that book,” Fuller said. “Hannibal ends on a cliffhanger. Hannibal Lecter has formed a bond with Clarice Starling, brainwashed her, and they’ve become quasi-lovers on the run as fugitives. It’s a dramatic cliffhanger. It could be interesting to wrap that storyline up somehow and bring Will Graham back into the fold. So, with two more seasons to go, we would tackle those untold stories before diving into the expanded novel arcs, using the novels as the framework for each season’s plot while adding new elements.”

Of course, things evolve, and the Red Dragon storyline ultimately appeared in the latter half of the third season. However, it’s clear that Fuller had grand plans to explore the entirety of Hannibal’s criminal journey.

4. A REAL CHEF CREATED THE CANNIBAL RECIPES.

Hannibal Lecter isn’t merely a cannibal—he’s a connoisseur of human flesh, a gourmand with refined tastes who doesn’t just consume his victims, but prepares them with culinary elegance. Fuller understood this, and he immediately knew that someone with extraordinary culinary expertise was essential to bringing this vision to life. So he reached out to renowned chef José Andrés, the owner of The Bazaar restaurant in Beverly Hills, someone Fuller had admired for some time.

"I don’t know much about cooking, but Hannibal Lecter has to be more skilled in the kitchen than I am," Fuller said. "José brings his expertise to every scene; he's everywhere in the food shots."

When production on the series started, Fuller and Andrés engaged in a series of discussions where the chef revealed that every part of the human body could be used in cooking, even the bones, which could be ground into a thickening agent. With this knowledge, Fuller aimed to write scenes that not only featured Hannibal preparing human body parts but also layered in intricate metaphors for each dinner scene (like when he serves “lamb tongue” to Dr. Frederick Chilton). Andrés developed the recipes, which food stylist Janice Poon then prepared and arranged on set, complete with elaborate tablescapes that became a visual signature of the show. The “food porn” Fuller envisioned became so beloved by fans that Poon launched a blog detailing the process and even went on to create a cookbook.

5. SEVERAL CHARACTERS WERE CAST IN GENDER- AND RACE-REVERSED ROLES.

In adapting Hannibal, Fuller used Harris’s novels—especially Red Dragon—as a foundational reference, but he wasn’t afraid to make changes. He aged up the titular character, effectively removing the focus on Lecter’s traumatic childhood during World War II, but the most noticeable alterations came in casting. Several prominent roles were reimagined with actors of different races and genders to increase the show’s diversity. For example, the roles of Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) and Reba McClane (Rutina Wesley), originally white in the books, were given to Black actors, while characters like Alan Bloom and Freddy Lounds were re-cast as Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) and Freddie Lounds (Lara Jean Chorostecki), shifting from male to female.

“It’s a more realistic representation of the world. If we just remade Red Dragon, it would’ve been a sea of white guys,” Fuller told Bloody Disgusting. “When I started writing, my protagonists were often young women, and there’s a unique perspective that comes with that... You can do things with a female character that you simply can’t do with a male one. I’ve always felt that giving a character a female identity opens up many more opportunities for expression.”

6. DAVID TENNANT WAS CLOSE TO PLAYING HANNIBAL.

Hugh Dancy was the first actor to be cast in the series, taking on the role of Will Graham in the spring of 2012, but finding the right actor for the title role proved to be a longer process. After all, how do you replace a character so iconic that Anthony Hopkins practically owns it after three films and an Oscar? Ultimately, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was cast, but he wasn’t the only actor under consideration. At one point, Fuller had discussions with Doctor Who and Jessica Jones star David Tennant about stepping into Hannibal’s shoes.

“I met [Hannibal executive producer] Bryan Fuller a couple of times, and we talked about the role,” Tennant told Entertainment Weekly. “But I think they made the right call in casting Mads Mikkelsen. He brought something unique to the character that I don’t think I could have. It was definitely the right choice for that role.”

7. CENSORS PLAYED A HAND IN THE SHOW'S CREATIVE DECISIONS.

For a show like Hannibal, graphic crime scenes involving dismembered bodies were always expected to be a key element, which made the series seem more fitting for cable television than a broadcast network. However, at NBC, Fuller took a proactive approach to designing the show's various gruesome murders with the help of the network's standards and practices team. Instead of creating scenes and then negotiating with the censors about what could or couldn’t be shown, Fuller would present his ideas first, collaborating with them to create the most acceptable version for NBC. Through this process, he discovered a few clever ways to work around the network’s violence restrictions.

“The more vibrant and red the blood, the less you can show,” he explained. “If you darken the blood and hide it in shadows, you can be much more graphic than you’d typically be allowed to.”

Interestingly, the dark, shadowy blood fit perfectly with Hannibal's overall style, so this tactic worked out well for everyone involved.

8. ONE EPISODE WAS NEVER AIRED ON NBC.

It was clear from the start that Hannibal would explore violent and disturbing crimes, considering its two central characters are a serial killer and a man who hunts them. However, even Fuller had his boundaries, and after a particularly violent period in the U.S. in late 2012 and early 2013, he requested that NBC pull the fourth episode of the show’s first season. The episode, titled “Oeuf,” involved a woman (Molly Shannon) brainwashing children to kill their own families. Given the tense cultural atmosphere, particularly following the Sandy Hook school shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing, Fuller felt it was inappropriate to air the episode in full. Although “Oeuf” was never broadcast on television, it was later made available through clips on NBC’s website, as well as on Blu-ray and streaming platforms.

9. THERE WAS ONE ELABORATE MURDER THE SHOW WASN’T ALLOWED TO FILM.

Even though Hannibal worked closely with the network’s standards and practices to push the boundaries of what could be shown on broadcast TV, the show still aired on one of the big four broadcast networks, not cable. This meant there were always going to be limitations, and eventually, the creative minds behind the show envisioned a murder scene that NBC was unwilling to allow.

So, what was the one murder scene NBC vetoed? According to Fuller, it was meant to appear in Season 1’s episode “Roti,” where Graham is tracking down escaped killer Dr. Abel Gideon (played by Eddie Izzard). The scene would have involved Lounds being drawn into a room where a victim of Gideon’s was still alive, with a deep cut in his stomach. Lounds would have then activated a switch, setting a ceiling fan into motion, only for it to be revealed that the fan was connected to the man’s intestines via the cut in his abdomen. As the fan spun, the victim’s insides would have been pulled out.

“That was the only one where NBC was like, ‘I just don’t know how you’re going to do it,'” Fuller said. “We would have fought for it, but we were also told that financially, we didn’t know how we’d afford to pull off such a scene, with intestines spinning around a ceiling fan,” he added.

10. THE SHOW’S BIGGEST CRIME SCENE USED REAL (LIVING) HUMAN BODIES.

The opening case of Hannibal season two introduced 'The Muralist,' a serial killer who kidnapped victims from diverse ethnic backgrounds, preserved their bodies using silicone and resin, and meticulously stitched them together in a massive and intricate arrangement at the bottom of a silo, forming the shape of a human eye. Lighter-skinned victims were used to create the white part of the eye, while those with darker skin formed the pupil. This gruesome visual, even by Hannibal's standards, required advanced planning with a computer program named Form Z to design the layout of the bodies. However, when it came to filming, there was no substitute for reality. Dozens of background actors were enlisted to lie on the floor of the set in the planned arrangement for two days of filming, often in minimal clothing.

“Over forty human bodies were involved. They heated the floor underneath us to prevent the background artists from succumbing to the cold,” Fishburne remembered. “As soon as you enter that room, you’re overwhelmed by the smell of human flesh and the pheromones from everyone. All you want to do is lie down and fall asleep with them,” he said.

11. A WONDERFALLS CROSSOVER.

Bryan Fuller is known for establishing links between his different TV shows, creating what fans affectionately call the 'Fullerverse.' This tradition continued with Hannibal, which featured a brief crossover with Fuller’s one-season Fox series Wonderfalls. In the second episode of Hannibal, 'Amuse-Bouche,' a woman named Gretchen Speck (Chelan Simmons) is seen picking up her insulin at a pharmacy. It’s revealed that she was once Gretchen Speck-Horowitz, but she has since divorced. She becomes a potential victim of a serial killer in that episode, a pharmacist who administers the wrong medication to diabetic patients, sending them into a coma before burying them halfway and using their bodies to cultivate mushrooms in the woods. Speck was meant to be his next victim, but she is saved before the killer can execute his plan. Gretchen Speck-Horowitz was a recurring character on Wonderfalls, and since she survives in Hannibal, she continues her journey in another Bryan Fuller creation.

12. DAVID BOWIE WAS ALMOST A GUEST STAR.

In addition to an outstanding primary cast, Hannibal frequently featured memorable guest stars, including Eddie Izzard, Gillian Anderson, and Lance Henriksen. One guest star, however, was perpetually just beyond reach for the series. For the second season, Bryan Fuller extended an offer to legendary musician and actor David Bowie to portray Hannibal’s uncle, Robert Lecter. Unfortunately, Bowie was unavailable, and the role remained uncast—though Fuller remained hopeful that Bowie might one day have the time to appear on the show.

“When we received the pickup for the third season, his team told us to check in again about his availability,” Fuller explained. “Once we have our dates, we will reach out again. I think the man walks on water, and I would have loved to be in his orbit, in any capacity,” he added.

Unfortunately, Bowie never appeared on Hannibal. It was later revealed that he spent the final 18 months of his life battling liver cancer while continuing to work on his final musical projects. He passed away on January 10, 2016.

13. A REVIVAL FOCUSING ON THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS IS STILL POSSIBLE.

Hannibal was canceled in June 2015, just a few weeks into its third season, after three years of critical acclaim but consistently poor ratings. Fans of the series, known as 'Fannibals,' immediately began pushing for the show to continue on another platform, and Bryan Fuller hinted at talks with various streaming services to make that happen. At one point, it seemed that a deal with Amazon for a fourth season was imminent, but the timeline ultimately fell through, partly due to Fuller’s commitment to the Starz series American Gods. Three years later, the future of Hannibal still remains uncertain.

That doesn’t mean the show is finished, though. Fuller has consistently raised the possibility of reviving the series for a fourth season or even a miniseries, bringing the cast back together. Both Mikkelsen and Dancy have expressed their willingness to return. If it happens, Fuller envisions focusing on an adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, having already tackled Red Dragon in the third season, while also providing a resolution to the dramatic cliffhanger that closed out the NBC run.

So, when might this happen? Last year, Fuller mentioned that the rights to the series had finally reverted back to De Laurentiis, who has since begun engaging in 'conversations' about the future of the Hannibal franchise. Although the specifics remain unclear, Fannibals are still holding out hope for their beloved cannibal, even three years after the show ended.

Additional Sources: 'Hannibal Reborn' featurette, 2013 'A Taste for Killing' featurette, 2013 The Art and Making of Hannibal the Television Series by Jesse McLean, 2015