NBC Pulls ‘Hannibal’ Episode After Boston Bombing

NBC has decided to pull Hannibal from the schedule in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.

According to Variety, the next episode of Hannibal features several violent scenes involving children. The show’s creator Bryan Fuller called the network and requested that NBC pull the episode “given the cultural climate right now in the U.S.”

Fuller said: “I didn’t want to have anyone come to the show and have a negative experience … Whenever you [write] a story and look at the sensational aspects of storytelling, you think, ‘This is interesting metaphorically, and this is interesting as social commentary.’ With this episode, it wasn’t about the graphic imagery or violence. It was the associations that came with the subject matter that I felt would inhibit the enjoyment of the overall episode. … It was my own sensitivity.”

According to Hit Flix, the fourth episode of the show featured a woman, played by Molly Shannon, who brainwashes children into killing other kids.

NBC pulled the episode from the schedule but that doesn’t mean that Hannibal fans won’t be able to see a new episode next week. According to CBS, will air the fifth episode in its place. Network executives said that there won’t be any continuity problems by watching the fifth episode before the fourth.

At the moment, NBC doesn’t have any plans of airing the fourth episode on television. UPI reports that NBC will put clips from the fourth episode online. The episode will also air in its entirety overseas.

Hannibal was scheduled to air its finale on June 27 but now the show will finish up a week earlier on June 20.

Are you a fan of Hannibal? Do you think Bryan Fuller made the right decision by pulling the fourth episode?