Popverse's top stories

• Absolute Superman is designed to be "the ultimate immigrant story" for our times, says DC writer Jason Aaron
• Simon Kinberg on writing X-Men movies, producing Glenn Powell's The Running Man remake, and co-creating Star Wars Rebels [Popversations]
• Better angels and online demons: A trip down the rabbit hole of Downton Abbey fandom

Hannibal fans (or Fannibals) have been appropriately frothing at the mouth for more word of the series future ever since NBC cancelled the show in 2015. We've heard rumors of a season 4 before, and series leads Hugh Dancy and Mad Mikkelsen, who play Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, respectively, have said that they'd be willing to come back. But now, we have a new comment to salivate over from series creator Bryan Fuller, although it comes with an interesting catch.

Fuller reportedly wants to adapt the most famous Hannibal story, The Silence of the Lambs, and even knows who he'd pick to play Clarice Starling. But in case you didn't know - The Silence of the Lambs is a story almost entirely without Will Graham's involvement.

OK, let's parse this out - first of all, Fuller made the comment to ScreenRant in an article published September 9. The outlet was catching up with the Pushing Daisies creator while he was out promoting his new film (and latest Mads Mikkelsen collab) Dust Bunny. At one point in the discussion, ScreenRant turned the discussion to talk of "more Hannibal."

"My dream project is to do a limited series of Silence of the Lambs," said Fuller, "With Mads and Zendaya as Clarice Starling. If I could put anything out into the universe, I would put that into the universe."

Before we continue, let's just stop to acknowledge that Zendaya is a perfect fit for the role of FBI Agent-in-Training Clarice Starling. Zendaya's been proving her acting chops for years now, but in this humble writer's opinion, absolutely cemented them with her performance in last year's Challengers. Her dramatic talent and understanding of heavy material is incredibly well-suited for the role that nabbed Jodie Fosetr an Academy Award in 1992.

But now that that's covered, a Silence of the Lambs adaptation would be a massive departure from what the Hannibal gang has said about the future of the story before. If adapted faithfully, Silence of the Lambs would not only leave Will Graham out of the equation, but it would also focus on the new obsessive, cat-and-mouse relationship between Clarice and everyone's favorite cannibal therapist. Not to mention, a faithful sequel to the storyline would see Hannibal and Clarice in a romantic relationship.

Which is gross, and not in the fun "social worker inside that horse" way.

That said, Fuller has already proven that he knows there's more to adaptation than 1-to-1 recreation of scenes of a book, as evidenced by the fact that he's already used elements from the novel Hannibal (which featured Clarice) in season 3 of the show. Not to mention, we know that Fuller himself is heavily invested in the Murder Husbands relationship, so we imagine his "dream" would take that into account.

All of that to say - whoever wants to greenlight whatever Fuller wants to do next with Hannibal is making a good call, whether we're sure about the Will Graham thing or not.

Whatever their future together as Hannibal and Will Graham, you can definitely watch Mad Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy reunite at ECCC '25, thanks to your pals at Popverse.