Who’s Going To Save ‘Hannibal’?

[Fair warning: Spoilers ahead for all three seasons of Hannibal]

News that NBC had canceled Hannibal only hit the newswire yesterday, but there was immediate fan uproar on social media, and now there’s the hope that one of several media outlets could potentially step in to save Hannibal, easily one of the best shows on the air few people are watching.

Hannibal is a show based on Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter books, originally made famous by The Silence of the Lambs movie, about FBI profiler, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) who seeks out the help of noted psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), to find a serial killer only to eventually discover that Hannibal himself is not only a serial killer, but also a cannibal. Their friendship gets a little more complicated from there.

And only three episodes into its third season, Hannibal is just as deliciously dark and dreamlike as it ever was. Seriously, the cinematography on this show is spectacular. So, why has NBC decided to cancel Hannibal now? It always seemed strange that a show like Hannibal was ever on standard network television, but in a recent statement showrunner, Bryan Fuller, praised NBC’s involvement with Hannibal.

“NBC has allowed us to craft a television series that no other broadcast network would have dared, and kept us on air for three seasons despite Cancellation Bear Chow ratings and images that would have shredded the eyeballs of lesser standards-and-practices enforcers. Hannibal is finishing its last course at NBC’s table this summer, but a hungry cannibal can always dine again.”

But why should Hannibal be saved when there are so many shows featuring gruesome deaths that would satisfy any need for visceral and vicarious horror? The answer is simple — because the murders aren’t the main course of this show.

Hannibal focuses on relationships — with society, with other people, and with oneself — but mainly the relationship between Hannibal and Will, the man who started out hunting him from the side of the law but now seeks him out for reasons we have yet to discover. At the end of the second season, Hannibal slices into Will’s abdomen and is about to leave him to die, but before he does, he tells Will he forgives him. In the trailer for the third season, we see that Will has also come to a point where he can dole out some forgiveness. This complicated, back and forth relationship between cat and mouse is what’s compelling to see.

The ratings on Hannibal have never been great, but NBC had a deal going with the production company that meant they spent a great deal less money on Hannibal than they would have on original programming, but when they took another serious dip going up against the NBA finals, NBC just couldn’t hold on any longer. Though they might also have been turned off by a rights issue to the character of Clarice Starling, which are still owned by MGM, and that could have meant ponying up a lot more cash to continue on.

That said though, Hannibal‘s gruesome elements and dark subject matter has always seemed much more perfectly suited to a cable (AMC, Showtime or HBO) or a streaming service (Netflix, Amazon or Hulu). And so that’s where fans are looking, in the hope that a miracle will happen and Hannibal will continue to create artistry in the kitchen. Fuller himself has even said that, “all options are being explored.”

Fuller even took to Twitter to rally the “Fannibals.”

WE HAVE 10 EPISODES OF #HANNIBAL TO WATCH ON NBC THURSDAYS. LET’S WATCH TOGETHER AND SHOW HOW STRONG THE #FANNIBAL COLLECTIVE CAN BE.

— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) June 22, 2015

Hannibal could go to Netflix or Hulu — both have recently stepped in to save fan favourite shows, like The Mindy Project. But Amazon would seem to be the most logical — they have exclusive rights to the first three seasons, as part of a four-year, five-show deal with NBCUniversal. That would make things more complicated for another streaming service to come in, but not impossible.

Though whatever happens, the core fans of Hannibal want the most original crime series to be seen in a long time to stick around awhile longer. And here’s hoping they can sway someone to save the day.

[Image courtesy NBC via Screenrant]