Hannibal: A Delicious Reunion: Cast and Creators Talk Hannigram, Hot Dogs, and a Possible Season 4

Hannibal ended its three-season run five years ago and has just recently begun streaming on Netflix, but the enthusiasm for the show from both fans and those involved with the production has never gone away.

Nerdist brought together some members of the cast and crew to reminisce on this very unique show and to discuss the hopeful possibility of revisiting the story for Season 4.

On July 11, 2020, the pre-recorded reunion panel with the cast and creators of Hannibal aired on Nerdist’s YouTube channel hosted by Rosie Knight. It was a nice big group of funny creatives (several donning flower crowns) with showrunner Bryan Fuller, producers Martha De Laurentiis and Loretta Ramos, director and producer David Slade, and food consultant Janice Poon representing the behind-the-scenes crowd.

Much of the cast was also in attendance: Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Caroline Dhavernas, Gillian Anderson, Kacey Rohl, Hettienne Park, Katharine Isabelle, Raúl Esparza, Scott Thompson, and Aaron Abrams.

They began by talking about the passionate Hannibal community — the Fannibal Family as it’s known — and its tenacity. If you follow any of it on social media, you would think that this show was still on the air.

Fuller and the producers are very much plugged into this thriving fandom. “It never felt like it stopped,” said the showrunner. “It never felt like there was any ebb. There was just flow.” Ramos echoed this, saying, “The fans never went away, like Bryan said. It’s just a constant flow. And it’s awesome. […] It has such a remarkable life of its own.”

Executive Producer Martha De Laurentiis attributes this to the fans that were there from the beginning. “It’s that core of viewers, that audience, that hooked in right away. And I want to say they are the smartest of the audience because they love all the nuances that were carefully woven in all throughout every single season in the performances, the class, the quality, that just kind of snowballed into a global fandom,” she stated.

The moderator commented that the show “predated the trends of prestige TV as they are now” and asked the producers if they felt that Hannibal was ahead of its time.

“We were all trying to tell the best story at the time,” answered Fuller. “Honoring the prose that the show is based on and the very purple, bloated, amazing text of Thomas Harris, and being able to try to adapt that into a cinematic language was a lot of fun. And it was super pretentious and everybody was game for the pretention and found an emotional reality in that pretention in a way that elevated it beyond my expectations.”

“Everyone was trying to find truth in the ridiculous dialogue that they were given and they pulled it off. […] It’s really just a wonderful troupe of folks who wanted to find truth in a really crazy story, and I’m just thrilled that connected.”

Director and EP David Slade spoke about approaching the material in a film feature sort of way rather than television episodic. “I came out of doing films. I’d done a bit of television. And I met with Bryan and we just talked about movies,” Slade recalled.

“And the question really was why can’t we just make a movie and do all of the things you would do in a movie—which is the mise-en-scene, there’s the dreams, the things that are psychological. It’s all of these things that generally TV doesn’t have time for, and we just kept saying, ‘Why not?'”

Mikkelsen commented on working from the source material. “We were all on the same page that as much as we love the books and what Anthony Hopkins did and other people before him, we wanted to separate ourselves from that and create our own monster, or angel, as I call him,” he explained, adding, “It’s always a tricky thing. You don’t want to just separate for the sake of separation. You want to be inspired by it and make it your own.”

Dancy remarked on the elements that were there in the pilot. “I felt like the first episode, or maybe it’s just always the case, but it’s just trying to figure out, no pun intended, the DNA of the show, particularly the visual DNA, like that dream sequence, that kind of visual language,” the actor said. “A lot of the fun of that for me, as well as getting to know all the people on the screen here and working with them, was just figuring out ‘oh, this is what the show is going to be.'”

With many of the cast present, they delved into the minds of the characters and what it was like to play them on the show. 

Hugh Dancy teased Fuller, saying, “I just wanted the opportunity to give a purple, bloated performance.”

Caroline Dhavernas spoke of her character, Dr. Alana Bloom. “She’s very attracted to weirdos,” she quipped. “She’s very cerebral but, at the same time, she has this pull towards darkness and mystery, and she goes there even though she knows it’s wrong.”

Although, some of it remained a mystery for Dhavernas. “I never really knew completely what was going on. I always felt like I was grasping a little bit here and there who she was, and then I guess I really understood who she was completely when I gave birth to a pig baby.”

Gillian Anderson shared this sentiment regarding her character, Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier. When the moderator asked what she thought of Bedelia’s place in the gray area of the two sides of good and evil, Anderson replied, “I haven’t a clue,” with pure comedic timing. “I would drop in, I would helicopter in, and open my mouth and try to make sense of this ludicrous dialogue.”

She did, however, get a handle on the elusive Bedelia, and she explained that abstract process. “I think that because her trajectory changed so much from episode to episode […] I think, at one point, I found a good way to play it that it could go one way or the other depending on what eye you were looking at it with.” There were many hand gestures to go with this explanation.

“There was enough of a gray area that you can read it one way or another, and you could still think that you knew what she was saying or what she meant by it,” Anderson added, then joked, “That anyone bought my shit is a miracle.”

The host commented on the dark comedy of the show and we heard from Scott Thompson and Aaron Abrams on their experience playing the dynamic duo of the forensics department, Jimmy Price and Brian Zeller. “The whole show was a dark comedy. I didn’t think of it as bringing comic relief,” said Thompson.

“I was trying to be serious,” he laughed.

Abrams agreed, adding, “It wasn’t too comic relief-y, it was a different flavor that felt like something. That was our pig baby.” He went on to say that much of their on-camera rapport mirrored how he and Thompson are together in real life. 

Kacey Rohl prefaced her deduction of Abigail Hobbs with a cheeky greeting to Mikkelsen. “It’s good to see you again, Dad.” 

She described Abigail as being “so held in the hands of these people she doesn’t know,” explaining that she “has to sort of surrender to them guiding her because everything she knows is gone.”

As expected, the popular topic of Hannibal and Will’s relationship came up. Fuller, Mikkelsen, and Dancy all weighed in on the ship known as Hannigram. 

“A mutual recognition seems to be part of it,” Dancy began. “Not only are you a great chess player but, actually, you’re the only person that plays chess in the whole world, nobody has even heard of chess, and then some other person walks in and they’re carrying a chessboard,” he analogized. (Katie Isabelle said “Aw!” and put up heart-hands.)

In regards to whether Hannibal really thought the only way to forgive Will was by eating him, Mikkelsen had this to say: “If Will would see him and recognize him and admit it, I don’t think he would have to eat him, but at that point, he was a little desperate so the only out for him was to eat him.”

Fuller expounded on their relationship in the context of sexuality.

“We certainly were driving towards an acknowledgment of [Hannigram] in the final season,” he said. “From our very first meeting with Mads, Mads redefined the character immediately for me because he was like ‘He is the Devil.’ He is this thing that is both of the world and outside of the world. And so, for me, the devil is pansexual, and I think Will Graham is a heterosexual character, but sexuality is fluid, and I think it would have to be a conversation where we sit down and try to find what is the most authentic expression of their relationship now.”

“It would be a conversation with Mads and Hugh, and what felt true to the characters because up until the point that I wrote ‘Is Hannibal in love with me?’ I was aware of the fan community wanting a sexualization between the characters. I was entertained by that greatly and got a kick out of it, certainly,” Fuller said, smiling.

“But it was also trying to be true to Thomas Harris, trying to be true the characters, trying to be true with Mads’ declaration of Hannibal as the Devil. I think it’s something that I am interested in and it’s something that feels like we were on a trajectory, and we just have to find the most authentic path for that trajectory as opposed to forcing something.”

Not afraid of stoking the anticipation for another season, Fuller further explained, “The nature of what would be happening in Season 4 in terms of the grander manipulations that Hannibal has on Will Graham’s mind—I don’t think Hannibal would want to have sex with Will unless Will were willing or of a right mind. And I don’t think Will’s gonna be in his right mind in Season 4, so it’s a big conversation and, hopefully, we’ll get an opportunity to explore it.”

Mikkelsen added, “Hannibal loves beautiful things. He loves beautiful music, beautiful art, beautiful food, beautiful people, physically or beautiful minds, so it’s nothing to do with sexuality.”

“I think that is the root of him being the Devil,” expanded Fuller. “There is that appreciation of things that are beauty.”

“One of my favorite things about talking with the Fannibal community,” he continued, “is that there is a wide variety of people who experience sex and sexuality in completely different ways, ranging from asexual to pansexual. And some of my favorite conversations have been with the asexual members of the Fannibal community who feel a lot of stress from society to function as sexual beings when they don’t feel it or don’t feel safe in expressing themselves that way, and what was safe for them with Hannibal and Will was that their love was about love purely and not necessarily sexuality.”

On the same subject, Fuller told viewers that it was Dhavernas that had the idea for Alana to begin a relationship with Margot Verger (Katharine Isabelle). “There was something deeper to explore in her bisexuality and her ability to navigate the weirdos, as it were.” 

Fuller said he welcomes that kind of collaboration. “I love whenever an actor takes ownership of a role and says, ‘I am the barometer, and this doesn’t feel right and this does feel right’ because it teaches me more about the character.”

It would be a (love) crime to not talk about the culinary aesthetic on “Hannibal: A Delicious Reunion,” and much of the panel conversation turned to the topic of food. Surprisingly, there was a lot of talk about hot dogs which is not something we ever saw on the show.

Mikkelsen: Hannibal never got a hot dog!
Fuller: That’s the whole arc of the show!

Janice Poon served as the food consultant for the series and created many of the elaborate designs that came from Hannibal’s kitchen.

“I will admit,” Poon said, “that it’s the first time I’ve been given so much freedom and so much encouragement to be more insane than I actually am. That was the key. Bryan always wanted something more.”

Poon took inspiration from the 17th-century Dutch masters. “The richness and multi-layeredness and the textured quality of it. All the little details,” she described. That artistic style exemplified Hannibal for her. “All those still lifes that are teeming with insects and rotting.”

The reunion ended with more discussion on what Hannibal Season 4 would look like. “Sunny and sweaty,” answered Fuller, “as compared to the harsh realities of Toronto. A whole new temperature for the cinema.”

Fuller acknowledged that it might be some time until they get there, though. “If we are going to be meeting them and it takes five years, ten years, or what have you, and everybody still wants to come back, that is just how long they have been on the lam.” He paused dramatically so everyone could get the full effect of the pun. “And the story picks up from that point.”

“It will be like Grumpy Old Men with cannibalism,” joked Dancy. 

Stray Observations:

• Hettienne would come back as Beverly’s twin sister if she can have a fight scene.
• Bryan plugged Gillian’s show, Sex Education, right in the middle of a conversation. It was so sweet. 
• This whole bit:
  Moderator: Bryan has always said that Bedelia is the smartest person in the room-
  Mads: Bryan, you’re lying to all of us.
  Bryan: I told that to all of them!
  Scott: Bedelia’s the drunkest. 
• Gillian asked if she was allowed to swear after already cursing several times. “Too late now, Gillian,” said Hugh.
• At one point, Gillian started talking about the wrong show, American Gods, which she worked on with Bryan and David Slade. They pointed it out to her, and she laughed and said, “I’m going now,” and left the chat! She did come right back, but it was hilarious. “As if we needed any evidence that Gillian can seamlessly shift between shows,” remarked Hugh.
• “Hor d’oeuvres go by and it’s just Chilton making faces.” -Raúl
• “Laurence and I deliberately fucked up a couple of scenes because there was foie gras going on.” -Mads
• Gillian had to eat 30 oysters one day. There was an oyster guy on set who shucked them fresh.
• Filming a sex scene on satin sheets is challenging according to Katie.
• “I have a hot dog story, too!” -Kacey
• “I fully expect for Chilton to come back and an anvil to fall on his head.” -Raúl
• Raúl described the set as “an art museum gone mad.”
• Gillian continued to be the most chaotic panelist when Katie had to leave, she tried to say she had to go as well but no one heard and she just dipped out! My awkward, relatable queen. 
• “David Bowie does need to make an appearance in Season 4.” -Bryan
• When asked what kind of food they would want to be cooked as Bryan said a dumpling and Scott said a hot dog.  
• Moderator: Hannibal—does he wear sandals?
  Mads: No. 
  Bryan: THANK YOU!

All three seasons of Hannibal are currently streaming on Netflix. “Hannibal: A Delicious Reunion” is available to watch on the Nerdist House YouTube channel. 

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