Mads Mikkelsen ready for Hannibal return

Mads Mikkelsen has been talking about the prospect of Hannibal Lecter returning to TV screens, stating that he’s “ready to take it up again.”

Hannibal is one of the most acclaimed shows of the last decade. Overseen by Bryan Fuller, the series starred Hugh Dancy as FBI special investigator Will Graham. While Mads Mikkelsen played psychiatrist/serial killer/cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

The show premiered on NBC in April 2013, and ran for three seasons that featured more violence, sex and gore than any network series, maybe ever.

Hannibal’s cancellation in 2015 shocked and stunned fans, and they’ve been trying to bring the show back for a fourth season ever since. If that dream becomes a reality, it sounds like the show’s star is onboard.

Mads Mikkelsen ready for Hannibal return

While speaking at the LA premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mads Mikkelsen said he’s very ready for Hannibal’s return.

When asked by Deadline (in the below video) if he’d play Lecter again, Mikkelsen said: “There’s always a chance. It’s all about finding a home for it. Of course we’re running out of time. We can’t wait 20 years. But within the next couple of years, if somebody finds a home, I think we are all ready to take it up again.”

The first three seasons were filled with original material, but also adapted aspects of several of Thomas Harris’s Lecter books – most notably Red Dragon, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising.

However, due to rights reasons, NBC couldn’t adapt the most famous of the books: The Silence of the Lambs. So if a deal could be done – both to bring the show back, and obtain access to TSOTL – there’s every reason for Hannibal to return.

Bryan Fuller on Season 4 return

Showrunner Bryan Fuller has also been talking up the show’s potential return, telling Nerdist that he’s been thinking long and hard about Season 3’s cliffhanger ending, and where he could go with Season 4.

“There’s something about where we left Will and Hannibal at the cliff and this power, tenderness and intimacy that they are experiencing in that moment that feels like it’s a launch pad,” Fuller explains in this video.

“I don’t think we can pull back but we have to continue the trajectory and continue that level of intimate exploration between these two men and their queer love story, their queer blurring of identities. And how that would manifest in a narrative that we can track. So it’s not so much an evolution as much as it is an extrapolation of what was kind of intended for or what is intended for Season Four.”

For more dark TV drama, check out our Black Mirror Season 6 coverage, all of which can be found here.