Hannibal, NBC’s improbably nasty and semi-gory Hannibal Lecter series, is one of the great prematurely cancelled shows of the modern era, maybe not right alongside Freaks and Geeks and Deadwood but not far below. And like most unfairly axed shows, there’s always the chance it could be revived. Show creator Bryan Fuller has long kept hope for a fourth season alive, and so has star Mads Mikkelsen, who is promising something big should the show ever return.
In a new interview with IndieWire, the Danish actor — promoting his new film, the drinking drama , which reunites him with The Hunt director Thomas Vinterberg — promised that if Season 4 does happen, they’ll tackle the most famous Lecter story of them all.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that if it does happen, we would love to go into Silence of the Lambs,” Mikkelsen said. He continued:
“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.”
Mikkelsen then went further, suggesting who should play serial killer Buffalo Bill — and it’s actually someone who’s been on the show before, playing another villainous character. He wants Michael Pitt, who played wealthy reprobate Mason Verger in Season 2, but was replaced by Joe Anderson in Season 3. “We already used Michael Pitt for Mason and that was fantastic,” Mikkelsen said. “If he wasn’t playing Mason I’d love to see him as Buffalo Bill.” Then again, they’d have to find another Clarice Starling.
Of course, right now Mikkelsen is a little busy. He’s the one who replaced Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts threequel. But if NBC or whoever greenlights Hannibal Season 4 now, he might be ready to do some socially distanced shooting in a few months.
(Via IndieWire)