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NBC's Hannibal tastes so good because of Bryan Fuller, according to Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy

Series creator and showrunner Bryan Fuller was the secret ingredient that made NBC's Hannibal so beloved by fans, say series stars Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen

For fans who so devotedly love NBC’s Hannibal, there’s one man to thank — and according to series stars Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, it’s not either of them.

According to the pair, speaking at Emerald City Comic Con 2025, everything that makes the show what it is comes from the mind of series creator and showrunner Bryan Fuller — and almost a decade after the series came to an end, both actors remain in awe of Fuller’s work.

“There’s nobody like Bryan. That’s the thing,” Mikkelsen explained. “His mind is working on a completely different level. So, even if there’s something on the page that you might go, what the fuck is going on? You can be absolutely sure that he knows what he’s doing and it’s going somewhere that will surprise you.”

Dancy called out the Fuller’s work was so deeply emotional, but “dressed in this layer of ornate and complicated language that somehow — without calling anybody else out, I saw other iterations of it by other people and it never quite worked. Having language like that that’s also just immersed in feeling that you can, after awhile, deliver naturalistically (kind of) is an incredibly unlikely and rare thing.”

“He is hands-on in a lot of things, down to the detail on your pants or what’s on the table,” Mikkelsen said. Dancy agreed: “Bryan’s a traditional old-fashioned showrunner, when everything is coming through his filter, which is not always the case.”

You can watch A Taste for the Unforgettable: Hannibal Reunion with Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy from ECCC 2025's Main Stage powered by Xfinity for yourself right here. Be there from anywhere.


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Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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