Pitt was last seen on TV starring in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire as Jimmy Darmody, a character that was shockingly killed off at the end of the second season. He also co-starred in the 2012 film Seven Psychopaths.

The Mason Verger role will be introduced late in the upcoming second season, which finds FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) in prison, falsely convicted for Lecter’s crimes, while the doctor advises the agency on cases. Gary Oldman previously played an older version of Mason Verger in the 2001 Hannibal film, which is based on Thomas Harris’ Hannibal novel. NBC’s Hannibal timeline precedes the events in the film and is also set before the events in Thomas’ Red Dragon so this is Mason how we’ve never seen him before (a cast description for the role compared him to the way Andrew Scott played Moriarty on Sherlock). Recently, Hannibal also cast Verger’s sister Margo, who is played by Katharine Isabelle (Being Human).