If you're counting the days (and let's face it, you are) until the delayed third season of Hannibal finally kicks off on NBC, we feel your pain.

So does showrunner Bryan Fuller, a self-described Fannibal who generously jumped on the phone with Digital Spy this week for an in-depth chat about all things season three.

We're pretty sure Hannibal would disapprove of snacking in between meals, but these 11 morsels of new info from Fuller should be just sufficient enough to whet your appetite without ruining it.



1. We'll get a little 007-style action in the early episodes.

"I love Ridley Scott's Hannibal, I just think it's such a fun, gruesome movie that kind of harkens back to Hammer films, and it's Hannibal as James Bond," Fuller enthused. "There's qualities of that that we wanted to bring to the first chapter of the third season, which is the Italy-based material."

We're guessing the motorbike and leathers will play a role here.

2. The season premiere 'Antipasto' is all about Bedelia Du Maurier and her years-long relationship with Hannibal Lecter.

"It really does feel like 'What are we watching?' Will Graham isn't in it, none of the other familiar characters are in it, it's just Hannibal and Bedelia and their history over three different periods of time."

3. ... But even in Florence with Bedelia, Hannibal's still pining for the one who got away.

"In that first episode all about Bedelia and Hannibal, there's just a hint of 'Wouldn't this be better if it were me and Will Graham?' in terms of Hannibal thinking that, and what he misses. Because Bedelia will always be Hannibal's psychiatrist, she'll never be necessarily as intimate and passionate in her relationship with Hannibal as Will and Hannibal are."



4. The rumours are true – we're dropping the cuisine-based episode titles for the second half of season three.

Episodes eight through thirteen will all be named after William Blake's series of Great Red Dragon Paintings, depicting scenes from the biblical Book of Revelation. Clued-up Fannibals will know that in the Harris canon, serial killer Francis Dolarhyde is obsessed with this series of paintings, which give his murderous alternate personality its name.

And we've got specifics. Episode eight is 'The Great Red Dragon...', episode nine is '...And the Woman Clothed in Sun', episode ten is '...And the Woman Clothed with the Sun', and episode eleven is '...And the Beast from the Sea'.

Fuller didn't name episodes twelve and thirteen, but going by this pattern we're guessing that twelve and thirteen will be named 'And the Number of the Beast Is...' and '...666' respectively.

5. Worried about Will's dogs? So are we. But fear not – Fuller confirmed that somebody has been taking care of them while Will and everyone he knows are recuperating from the massacre: "We indicate who is taking care of them, without overly answering it... it is addressed in some way."



6. Richard Armitage's Dolarhyde will be treated more like a third lead character than a supporting player in the season's second chapter.

"He is in the show almost as much as Hugh and Mads are in the second half of the season," Fuller revealed. "So we really spend a lot of time with Dolarhyde, in a way that neither of the movies have had the real estate to."

7. Dolarhyde's story will be a true tragedy, developed with more painful psychological depth than season two's gleefully sadistic Mason Verger.

"A lot of what we see with Dolarhyde is just him alone in a room struggling with his insanity. I wanted the audience to be so confused with this character because we get to know him, and we get to see this man who is suffering, from his mind eating him alive from the inside out."

8. Between her troubled patient history and her increasingly treacherous relationship with Hannibal, comedy hasn't been high on the agenda thus far for Bedelia. That's all about to change, in episode six specifically.

"Gillian has quite a big role in the first half of the season, and she's hilarious. There's one episode in particular where she is laugh-out-loud funny, and I can't wait for people to see that because she's just a delight."



9. Hannibal and Will's reunion will be bittersweet, emphasis unexpectedly on sweet.

"There's a scene that is so touching, when they're finally reunited and able to have a conversation. Mads and Hugh and their friendship are such amazing assets to the show, and you see all of that. It's like 'It's really good to see you, but this is a terrible situation that we're in, and you're actually a terrible person, but I've found a way to forgive you in the way you forgive a shark for being a shark'."

So that "I forgive you" we saw from Will in the season three trailer? Probably genuine.

10. Gore-hounds (and gore-phobes) should look out for episodes seven and twelve in particular – those are where Fuller hints that the "freakiest stuff" lies. One scene in episode twelve involving Dolarhyde was so intense that it drew gasps from the crew during filming.

"It's one bit in particular that's from the books, and we see it probably more graphically on our show than you have in any of the movies.

"When we did that scene, you're supposed to be silent when you're watching, but the entire crew gasped and shrieked. So you're watching the dailies and you're seeing this horrible thing happen, and you just hear all these gasps coming from behind the camera, and it's so much fun! It's so disturbing that it affected the crew."

11. If you want to get a sense for how a fourth season of Hannibal would look, pay very close attention to the first seven episodes of season three.

"It felt like a breath of fresh air not being in Quantico, and not having FBI scenes talking about the murder clues. It was so liberating that if we do get a fourth season, there's going to be a lot more of that than there will be anything FBI-oriented. It will probably be our most serialised season thus far, and the first half of season three was really an experiment of 'does this work on our show?' As an audience member and Fannibal, I loved it."

Check back next week for our full Q&A with Fuller, where he delves further into Will's forgiveness of Hannibal, Dolarhyde's relationship with Reba McClane (Rutina Wesley), the future of Abigail Hobbs and much more.

Season three of Hannibal premieres on NBC on June 4, and in the UK on Sky Living on June 8.

The Art and Making of Hannibal by Jesse McLean is released on May 8th from Titan Books.

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