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Hannibal returns tomorrow for its third season, much to the delight of a fanbase which is clearly large enough to have triggered the show’s renewal. Season two ended with Hannibal Lector and Bedelia Du Maurier flying off to Europe, leaving a sizable number of the main cast in varying states of bleeding out, and the viewers on tenterhooks as to who will survive.
Will Graham was always going to make it, of course. That was a given. Abigail Hobbs- almost certainly not. Jack Crawford and Alana Bloom- their fates were still very much in the balance. They appear in some of the trailers, but there’s still an outside chance that their appearances are from Will’s memories and imagination, given a comment he makes regarding the mind telling stories. The accuracy or otherwise of one’s perceptions and understanding is an underlying thread in this show.
Seasons one and two were established as being prequels to the events of Red Dragon, and are bookended by two points that, in the book, are established as being key moments for Will. Season one begins with the shooting of Garret Jacob Hobbs, and as mentioned ends with Hannibal essentially gutting Will. A particularly ironic act, as Will’s ‘happy place’ to which he retreats in his mind is fishing. The first half at least of season three, however, will have a storyline that never existed in the books at all. There, Hannibal is captured when he stabs Will instead of leaving undetected (in the pouring rain, making it vaguely reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption. The second half will go back to the events of Red Dragon, with Hannibal captured and imprisoned.
The next question is, what will happen after that? The Silence of the Lambs is next up, but there are two problems with keeping close to the book there. One is that the rights to two of the character names- Clarice Starling and Jame Gumb- are owned by MGM and there’s no guarantee that they will be made available to be used. This is less of an issue for Jame Gumb since renaming a character is relatively minor, and since the character himself is based on real-life killer Ed Gein it would be simple enough to re-vamp the character as well. Chances are that the showrunner Bryan Fuller would adjust the character anyway, maybe by de-emphasising Gumb’s perception of himself as transgender or by emphasising that Gumb is deluded in that regard. He has already in roughly the same way made Margot Verger a more nuanced character rather than going for the ‘butch lesbian, possibly transgender, because of abuse’ theme from the books. Not that Margot wasn’t a sympathetic character in the books, but her characterisation was based on outdated stereotypes and assumptions.
The real problem is Clarice Starling. Not the name, but the character’s presence in the first place. By The Silence of the Lambs Will is out of the picture, but the Will/Hannibal dynamic is integral to the show. With the greatest of respect to Agent Starling, who is not just a ‘Strong female character’ but is also a ‘female character, written strongly’, replacing Will with her would detract from a key part of what has made the show a success. She could work alongside Will, just as she does with Jack in the book and film, but the problem with that is that it’s adding characters without necessarily having anything for them to do. If she does all or even most of the interacting with an imprisoned Hannibal, once again the Will/Hannibal dynamic is diminished or lost. Moreover, we’ve already had a trainee FBI agent, mentored by Jack, in the show- Miriam Lass. In the original Clarice was original. In the show, she’d be recycled.
The best option might be to have Will remain and, in effect, fill Clarice’s role in the story. Several adjustments would have to be made, especially to the Hannibal storyline, but nothing that would change the main plot- including the ending; although there are indications from Bryan Fuller that the story, if it goes to six seasons, will finish differently. Now, it’s not as if the show hasn’t changed things from the books already. Alan Bloom becoming Alana and Freddy Lounds becoming Fredricka (Freddie) is pretty much the least of it, simply opening up more female characters. Lounds’ fiery wheelchair death from Red Dragon appears early and is subverted. And as mentioned above, Hannibal is not arrested after injuring Will but instead departs with Bedelia, which is very reminiscent of Hannibal and Clarice at the end of Hannibal. In effect, that part of Clarice’s storyline has already been used.
With Will in Clarice’s role, however, the ‘choosing Hannibal’ plotline can still remain, if slightly adjusted. The relationship between Will and Hannibal, described by Fuller as intimate and romantic or bromantic (although not actively sexual) has a long way left to run before a conclusion is needed, or even to be desired. 12 more episodes is unlikely to give enough time. Moreover, Hannibal’s influence on Will in an attempt to show him his true self as Hannibal sees it is part of the transformation theme than runs through the books, not just for the killers but for Clarice as well. Francis Dolarhyde is trying to become the Red Dragon. Jamie Gumb is inspired by moths hatching. Clarice gains strength from things that she has previously rejected and becomes less dependant on her ‘FBI Agent’ identity for her sense of self- which paves the way for her final decision.
Keeping Will in the Hannibal story will increase the tension between the killer and the agent, but instead of the classic ‘Will they or won’t they?’ question it becomes ‘Who will choose whom?’ Will choosing Hannibal would be very different from Hannibal choosing Will, and there will even be a question as to what ‘choosing’ will mean or entail. And those questions can carry the show through as long as Fuller could want.