After three seasons of stylish, critically acclaimed but little-watched gore, NBC has decided that it has had its fill of Hannibal.
The TV series about the cannibal psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, invented by the thriller writer Thomas Harris and immortalised in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, received good reviews but never attained high ratings. Its violent imagery, often displaying corpses artfully arranged and waiting to be eaten by the eponymous antihero, pushed the envelope of what is permissible on network TV.
Hannibal’s 11 June episode, the second in the third season, had 1.7 million viewers, an all-time low for the series. The season’s final episode will be shown on 3 September. The show stars Mads Mikkelsen in the lead and Gillian Anderson.
Showrunner Bryan Fuller said in a statement: “NBC has allowed us to craft a television series that no other broadcast network would have dared, and kept us on the air for three seasons despite Cancellation Bear Chow ratings and images that would have shredded the eyeballs of lesser Standards & Practices enforcers.”
Hinting that the show could return in another form, or on another network, Fuller added: “Hannibal is finishing his last course at NBC’s table this summer, but a hungry cannibal can always dine again. And personally, I look forward to my next meal with NBC.”
Fuller is currently working on an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods for Starz.
NBC said: “We have been tremendously proud of Hannibal over its three seasons. Bryan and his team of writers and producers, as well as our incredible actors, have brought a visual palette of storytelling that has been second to none in all of television – broadcast or cable.”
