NBC has just cancelled "Hannibal" after three seasons because the show's ratings were not as high as they would have liked, and show creator Bryan Fuller feels sad that they would not be able to let Hannibal's story unfold as planned.
He actually has big plans for season four that would really reinvigorate the series, he said, so it's a shame that they have to close the subject with just ten episodes left to air.
"It doesn't feel like we are done because we're not done with this season. We've got a lot of story left, and the four remaining episodes of the Italian arc are so gravely demented that I think they're amongst my favorites of the series," he told Vulture in an interview.
After that, they will get into the "Red Dragon" story, with Richard Armitage as Francis Dolarhyde, said Fuller, and that feels like a whole new chapter in itself.
"Season four would be a reexamination and reinterpretation of the Will Graham-Hannibal Lecter relationship in a fashion that is unlike anything else we've done in the show," said Fuller. "So it is, in many ways, a whole reinvention of the show, in an exciting way. And if it weren't for the appeal of that, I would be very fine with saying, 'Season three, really strange season, something to be very proud of,' and just letting it go at that."
The show creator teased that his idea for season four is so "terrifying creatively," and yet also inspiring that the writers and actors will definitely be challenged to take it on. It's "completely different from what we've done in the previous three seasons," he said.
Fuller added he would be a fool not to want to continue working on and writing for the show, given the extremely talented cast they have, which includes the likes of Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy,Laurence Fishburne, Gillian Anderson, and Caroline Dhavernas.
Of course, Fuller had experiences in the past where his much-loved projects met an ill-fated end, such as "Pushing Daisies," and so he did something different with "Hannibal."
"I wanted to approach every season of 'Hannibal' as if it was the last season of 'Hannibal,' with the option to do more," he said. "But, you know, I was a Boy Scout. So I'm prepared. The ending of season three has more in common with, in terms of satisfaction, the end of season two, if we're talking about season finales that could double as series finales."
