Hannibal Season 4 Needs To Happen In 2025

Even a decade after Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal was canceled, there’s still a hunger for more. Running for three seasons and 39 episodes, Hannibal paired Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham with Mads Mikkelsen’s titular cannibal. Boasting an ensemble cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, and Gillian Anderson, it was an instant hit but never quite got the mainstream recognition it deserved.

With massive swings away from the source material like gender-swapping Dhavernas’ Dr. Bloom, Hannibal put a spin on characters from Thomas Harris’ books. Although complicated rights issues meant the team wasn’t able to use the iconic Clarice Starling or the events of The Silence of the Lambs, this worked in Hannibal’s favor by letting the story focus on the relationship between Hannibal and Will.

What Happened to Hannibal Season 4?

A decade after Dr. Lecter and Will Graham left audiences on a blood-soaked cliffhanger, the idea of Hannibal season 4 refuses to go away. Fuller has spoken candidly about what he had in mind next, with rights issues hopefully resolved and a full-blown The Silence of the Lambs adaptation. Unfortunately, after season 3’s viewership started to slip and Executive Producer Martha De Laurentiis blamed piracy, NBC canceled the series. Despite Fuller being in talks with Netflix and Amazon about continuing Hannibal’s story, the cast were released from their contracts just a month later.

While that could’ve been the end of the story, Fannibals have held a candle to the idea of a revival. It’s thanks mainly to the leads and Fuller continuing to discuss one. In a February 2024 interview with Business Insider, Mikkelsen reignited revival talks once again, telling the outlet:

“It’s no secret that all of us who were part of the cast and Bryan, we all want to go back. It’s got to happen eventually sooner than later because we’re not getting any younger, right? But the story itself can jump, it can have that gap, which is fine. So it’s all about finding a home for it, but that’s nothing concrete out there now.”

Although he admitted he doesn’t know why it’s taking so long, it’s served as a glimmer of hope that talks are still happening. Despite Will and Hannibal’s precarious situation, a post-credit stinger included a tease with Anderson’s Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier being served her own cooked leg. Eagle-eyed fans spotted that the table was set for three, and with Du Maurier hiding a fork in her lap to presumably stab one of the guests, it looks like one of Dr. Lecter’s culinary feasts to rival season 2’s ‘Red Dinner.’

Fuller has pretty much confirmed that Hannibal and Will survived, and when asked about season 4 for the show’s ten-year anniversary, he told Nerdist how he was still noodling ideas using the following phrase to describe season 4: “Lured, Erotic, Intimacy.” Confirming it would return to Hannibal and Will’s relationship in season 4, he also warned:

“If you didn’t like season three you probably won’t like season four but if you like the trajectory you’re going to love where it’s going spending time with it.”

Given that Dancy and Mikkelsen filmed an extended version of their final scene, could Hannibal season 4 finally confirm that there’s some sort of romantic relationship between the pair? As fans have been speculating on the show’s homoerotic nature since the very start, season 4 could break new ground. Similarly, Fuller has also said there would be an improved focus on Katharine Isabelle’s Margot Verger and Alana Bloom, suggesting the lesbian power couple is just as important as Hannibal and Will in season 4.

Way back in 2016, Dancy described Hannibal season 4 as a ‘full reset’ in an interview with Collider and teased that it could return in a different way. Pushed on whether Hannibal could be turned into a movie for season 4, the man behind Will Graham said:

“I think we’d all be happy to return in some capacity, and the idea of a movie is really interesting. Obviously, one of the things that we did with the show, that Bryan did really, was very languorous, very image-rich storytelling, so how to fit that into a movie, I’m not sure.”

Unfortunately, like Mikkelsen says the cast aren’t getting any younger, the various teases and fans hopes haven’t turned into anything…yet.

2025 is the Perfect Time for Hannibal’s Return

Instead of Hannibal season 4, fans of the source material were given CBS’ short-lived Clarice. Starring Rebecca Breeds as the titular Agent Starling, Clarice tried to tell the story of The Silence of the Lambs but faced the awkward problem of not being able to use Hannibal. Hannibal always danced around the issue of Clarice, introducing its own pseudo-Starling in the form of Anna Chlumsky’s Miriam Lass. Lass always felt like an underused character who was completely absent from season 3.

As well as saying there were plans for Lass to return in season 4, Fuller promised the next season would move forward with the ‘real’ Clarice. In terms of his dream cast, Fuller mentioned Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace as Buffalo Bull and Elliot Page (previously Ellen) as a potential Clarice Starling. In the same Mandatory interview, Fuller said there are ‘fantastic ways’ to reimagine it 30 years later, so maybe 2045 is when fans can expect a return to this world.

The perfect time to bring back Hannibal is just around the corner, with 2025 marking a decade since season 3’s cliffhanger. It’s clear there’s still an appetite from the cast and Fuller, with the latter previously saying he was trying to secure the rights to The Silence of the Lambs for its own miniseries. It’s unclear why that never happened, but with both Hannibal and Clarice suffering due to not being able to use some of the novel’s iconic characters, there are hopes that rights issues can be resolved and Fuller can finally move forward with his vision for how Hannibal should’ve continued all those years ago.

Even though it seems unlikely Fuller will be able to get a whole new season of Hannibal off the ground and filmed by the finale’s 10-year anniversary on August 29, 2025, there would be no better way to celebrate this milestone than by at least confirming that a revival is on the cards. Either way, after horror fans were sadly denied Fuller’s planned Friday the 13th prequel series, Fannibals are famished for another course of Hannibal and are more than ready to tuck into season 4. The question is, can Fuller pull it off, or will Hannibal be another Pushing Daisies that was canceled too soon?