Hugh Dancy Says ‘Hannibal’ Season 4 Would Go ‘Back to the First Season’

Hulu’s first trailer for The Path gave us a peek at Hugh Dancy’s next role, though many a Hannibal fan keeps hope that Bryan Fuller will one day reunite Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen for another chapter. Fuller has long kept vague on the mystery plot to a potential fourth season, though Dancy gave some tantalizing clues that “took us back to the first season.”

Collider had a chance to speak with Dancy after The Path’s TCA press tour panel, as the former Will Graham reaffirmed his interest in returning to the character one day, offering a few hints of its story. Naturally, walking back Will’s embrace with Hannibal over the edge of a cliff would be difficult, but Dancy says Fuller’s idea would still keep in line with the books:

“Bryan [Fuller] pitched it to me … well, he, described to me in an overview with what he wanted to do with the 4th season, had there been an interest, and it was really fantastic. It was a complete restart, without describing it — because who knows, God knows, maybe some way we may be able to do it in the future — but it took us back to the first season in a very unexpected way, and made total sense of that cliffhanger ending; it seemed justified. It was born out of a part of one of the books so it was still coming out of that universe, but it wasn’t the Clarice / Silence of the Lambs storyline.”

Fuller had previously spoken to interest in an unexplored portion of the original Thomas Harris novels, though it remains difficult to discern Dancy’s meaning. At the very least, we know that the current American Gods showrunner had always planned the fourth season as such, potentially eyeing a Silence of the Lambs adaptation for the fifth, while rights to the novel remain with MGM.

There’s also the complication that Fuller told us the mystery chef behind Bedelia (Gillian Anderson)’s severed leg, seemingly confirming that at least one person survived the fall from the cliff, and got right back to business.

In any case, Dancy remains busy with The Path, while Mads Mikkelsen works on a little something to do with Star Wars, and Fuller himself gears up to shoot American Gods in Toronto. However the story shakes out, movie or a new season, will we ever learn what Hannibal Season 4 would be about?