'Hannibal' at Comic-Con: Could the Killer Drama Find New Life?

NBC may have canceled Hannibal (boo!), but it couldn’t kill the enthusiasm of Fannibals everywhere, who converged in Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday to celebrate the lushly cinematic serial-killer drama… which, to paraphrase Monty Python, might not be dead yet.

Star Hugh Dancy (Will), new cast member Richard Armitage, showrunner Bryan Fuller, and producer Martha De Laurentiis were welcomed by throngs of screaming fans holding up sheets of paper with the words “Fannibals Forever” written underneath a pair of deer antlers. And all four happily donned flower crowns, a trademark of the Hannibal fandom, and wore them for the length of the panel.

So is there hope for more Hannibal, even after Netflix and Amazon passed? Fuller says, “We are still looking… we don’t have a lot of answers.” He did hint, though, that a feature-length follow-up might be possible down the road: “Hopefully, we’ll find a way to bring Hugh and [co-star] Mads [Mikkelsen] back to you.” And Dancy is game: “It’s an emotional thing for all of us… and it’s not over.”

But Fuller urged the fans not to boo NBC for their decision to axe the show after three seasons: “NBC allowed us to do some crazy s–t for three years. We should applaud NBC.”

And there’s still a lot of Season 3 left to savor. Before the panel began, fans were treated to an extended preview of the rest of the season, including Armitage’s debut as Francis Dolarhyde, aka the Red Dragon. We see him working out, studying the works of William Blake, getting heavily tattooed, and buying a set of jagged false teeth. Yes, we have another majorly twisted killer on our hands.

Will goes to Hannibal, who is (spoiler alert!) now imprisoned in a glass-walled jail cell, for help in catching Dolarhyde. As Hannibal puts it, “it takes two to catch one.” We also catch glimpses of Zachary Quinto as a new patient of Bedelia’s, and True Blood’s Rutina Wesley as a woman who encounters Dolarhyde — and maybe gets a little too close to him.

That’s a lot to chew on (so to speak), and Fuller says a big part of the Red Dragon story is the push and pull between Will and Hannibal over Dolarhyde’s soul. “Will is looking at Francis as a version of Hannibal he can save,” he says, “and Hannibal is looking at Francis as a version of Will he can corrupt.”

Armitage, who studied the original Thomas Harris novels to prepare for the role, sees Dolarhyde as “a man who’s very uncomfortable in his own skin, and is trying to shed his skin.” And the Red Dragon storyline also represents a three-year time jump for Will, who’s quit the FBI… and found a wife. Dancy says when we catch up with Will, he has retreated into domesticity… “but that doesn’t last for very long.”

Here are some more small bites from Hannibal’s Comic-Con panel:

* Dr. Lecter is known for his impeccable wardrobe, so what’s Fuller’s favorite outfit of his? “I like the charcoal with the cranberry windowpane three-piece suit,” he says. In fact, he liked it so much, he had the show’s costume designer Christopher Hargadon make one for him.

* Fuller revealed the formula for his Hannibal scripts: “one-third Thomas Harris,” “one-third real psychology,” and “one-third our special sauce.”

Related: 6 Things We Need to See Before ‘Hannibal’ Ends for Good

* The Red Dragon is a killer of families and a rapist in the books, but Fuller was careful to play down that latter aspect, just because he wants to be careful about that subject: “I think you should only tell a rape story when you can dedicate a lot of real estate to examine what that sort of violation means for everyone.”

* When asked about his inspirations, Fuller cited David Lynch (“I’m so excited for the new Twin Peaks”), David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, and Tony Scott (especially for the 1983 vampire movie The Hunger). “I love visually aggressive filmmakers, and we try to be visually aggressive with Hannibal,” he says.

* Collaborating with his two lead actors is one of the most rewarding things about making Hannibal, Fuller says. Dancy and Mikkelsen are “very opinionated in a wonderful way, which is such an asset as a showrunner… So often, I get re-inspired for writing after conversations with Hugh and Mads.”

* Fuller credits composer Brian Reitzell with the show’s unsettling, dissonant musical score; he says it’s the first time in his career “I’ve taken my hands off the wheel” and let the composer do whatever they want. Plus, Fuller hints that Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees will contribute some music this season — maybe even in the Season 3 finale.

* Speaking of the finale: Dancy warmly remembers a moment filming that episode with Armitage. Without giving anything away, it was a long night and an overnight shoot, and “we found a bottle of wine… and it was just really nice wine.” The exhausted pair had a glass of wine together, Dancy recalls: “That was just a wonderful moment.”

Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.