One of the best shows on television, Hannibal manages to mix over the top, grandiose — and visually stunning — horror scenarios with beautifully measured performances that ground the material, despite the story’s bigger than life nature. At the center of this, of course, is the title character, played by Mads Mikkelsen. Overcoming the pressure that came with playing a role so memorably conveyed by Anthony Hopkins before him, Mikkelsen has succeeded in making Lecter his own - giving the character a different energy, while retaining the integral sense of brilliance and menace.

With Season 2 of Hannibal coming out on DVD and Blu-ray this week, I spoke to Mikkelsen about the huge, no-turning-back events that occurred during the season, Hannibal and Will Graham’s ever-complicated relationship and where things could go in Season 3.Suffice to say, full (and major!) spoilers follow for Hannibal: Season 2.

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Well, I was thrilled to do it. There's something fantastic about sitting behind a desk and a counter for hour after hour and then getting out to get your hands dirty. Doing that together, with Laurence [Fishburne], was super thrilling. I mean, I'm standing up against one of the big heroes from The Matrix, who's been doing this for a living for many years -- and I get to kick his ass! That's fun, right? No, we had a really fun day. It was a long day. We felt young and good -- the next day, we felt slightly older. But I was a little concerned to show that in the first episode. I was intrigued by where he [Bryan Fuller] wanted to go. Obviously that's a little piece of sugar that he gives, and then people forgot about it. Then it came up again, which was interesting, right? So I loved doing the scene, but I was curious how they were going to pull it off, showing it that early. But apparently it worked, and he planned it to.Well, there's a lot of script-by-script finding out. Obviously we know that Jack is going to find out, but we assume whether he's going to find out in episode nine or 10 or 11. So I always a little curious like, "What kind of costume did they give me today? Is it happening today? Is it a match?" [Laughs] So we know where it's going, but we don't necessarily know when it's happening.Yeah, it's always tricky. Let's say you're the smartest man in the room. If you're smarter than everybody else, there's a certain amount of drama that just disappears because there is no danger. You will never, ever f**k up. He's always ending on the good side, right? It's a little like, if you read a scene and it says you come in and you are extremely sexy, the thing is, you cannot play sexy yourself. You have to make sure that they find you sexy. It's the same with intelligence. The other actors have to play me intelligent. It has to affect them. If not, we can say he's intelligent many times, but we will never get it. But I think also there are little holes. He falls in little holes once in awhile, especially when it comes to his own vanity, and that's where Will Graham is getting him: on his own vanity, that he starts believing he's bigger than God himself. That's where Will gets him. But the interesting thing is, his plans aren't necessarily going from A to Z from the beginning. He's adapting, he's changing nonstop. He sees opportunities, and he will make a fast decision and make that his plan. But he will change nonstop, and that's what's interesting about him.Oh, absolutely. I mean, let's put it frankly: it's a f**ked up relationship. The thing is, I know that he knows, and I also knows that he plays me, and he knows that I know. There's something about that that is so kinky and weird, right? Hannibal would be extremely disappointed if Will did not use his intelligence to try to nail me. That would disappoint him a lot. But at a certain point he does give in. He does believe that they can walk hand-in-hand down the path, with Abigail Hobbs, into the future. At a certain point he does believe it, and that breaks his heart - that he was weak enough to believe something that he didn't see was a lie.I think that "respect" is a difficult word in that sense because obviously when you find yourself so super intelligent -- and he does -- it's hard to have a professional respect. I mean, obviously, if Jack were a skillful and outstanding policeman, I would be in jail -- but I like him. I like his enthusiasm. I like his energy. I like his persistence of trying to catch this killer. I like his wife for the same reasons, this stubborn, beautiful woman. I enjoy being together with them. I enjoy the moments of honestly in front of the fireplace. I enjoy being together with Alana, and so on. So they're not being played by Hannibal -- I mean, they are -- but he's honest in the moment he's with them. He's always honest with them. He likes them.Yeah, he's cleaning up in that way. [Laughs] Or he's making a mess of it. No, I think it's the only he could finish it, and I think to make it such an operatic crescendo of the oboes and drums and everything, just everything peaks, right? That's the only way to do it. It's a sea of blood. It's as graphic as his world has been so far. It's another one of these murder tableaus that is lifted into something that is almost like poetry. It could not end in other ways, and he has to leave as a hero into the rain, being clenched by the rain. So it's a hero finish, and it's not the hero leaving the room, which is of course fantastic.Oh, yes! [Laughs] Crime does pay.If Will Graham and Hannibal's relationship is a f**ked up one, I think that Bedelia and Hannibal's must be the most kinky relationship we've ever seen. There's something there. I know some of it, and there's some I don't know, but there is something there that is freaky and weird. Somehow they are connected; somehow they are not.

Continue to Page 2 as Mikkelsen discusses more about Hannibal and where things could go next.