What have the last few weeks been like for you since NBC canceled the show and fans basically petitioned every other network to pick it up?

Bryan Fuller: It's definitely been surreal and yet familiar at the same time because this is not my first time at the cancellation rodeo. It's always beloved to have that much affection for something you create or, in this case, reinterpret for a new audience. The relationship with the Fannibal community has always been one of my favorite things about doing this show because I'm meeting and interacting with a lot of very intelligent young women, primarily, who have found an odd kink that is somehow relatable in its strange perversion of romance that can be interpreted through the prism of a young woman's mind. That's exciting. And then you interact with the harder core horror audience, who is also getting something strange out of the proceedings. So in many ways, the diversity of the audience has been a wonderful experience because I see a broad demographic of people who are engaged in this version of the story — even though they might not be represented in the numbers as far as Nielsen is concerned. I absolutely feel the love.

You tweeted that Netflix and Amazon passed on picking up a fourth season of Hannibal. Are you still trying to shop the show around or have you made peace with Season 3 being the end, if that's the case?

BF: It's hard to consider what the next move is for Hannibal when the audience hasn't seen the next six moves. The way we end this season is pretty dramatic and bold on one hand, but also platforms into more story on the other. I'm in the position of knowing what happens when the audience doesn't, so it feels like the conversations we're having are half conversations. Let's have this conversation once everybody has seen the whole season and knows what goes down and with who and who walks away and who doesn't and how that would inform a Season 4. Because there may be certain members of the audience who feel this is a very satisfying place to end. They may have the closure that they don't expect because they haven't gone on the full ride. If we have more, it would be great. I'm excited about the next chapter for Will and Hannibal and what that would be, but I can't have an informed conversation with the Fannibals because they don't know what's to come yet, so even though it is precise about our end on NBC, to discuss the finality of the show without the audience understanding the finality of the season feels like a half conversation.

When you were writing the final episode of Season 3, did you have any sense it could be the last episode, on NBC at least?

BF: There is much more of a sense of finality to the Hannibal series as it existed on NBC with this finale, and that was very intentional because at the beginning of the season I had a conversation with someone at NBC who basically said, "Let's start talking about new development with you," and I was like, Oh, this is our last season. [laughs] I wanted to make sure we ended this season in a way that would be satisfying for the audience that has been with us for the last three years, and also have a doorway that is still open for us to continue telling the story of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter.

Would that include, as you said at Comic-Con last year, Schmarice Schmarling?

BF: The fourth season did not include "Schmarice Schmarling" in our design. It's still very much about Will and Hannibal and a big, bold reinvention of their relationship.