Dr. Lecter will see his last patient on NBC this September.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal will finish out its third, critically acclaimed, 13-episode season on September 3 with a possibility of being shopped to a different network. THR cites other sources as indicating the reason for the cancellation revolved around the introduction of Clarice Starling in a potential fourth season. The rights to the character, played by both Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore, were unavailable to the television production.
While the series has developed a rabid cult following, there is an unmistakable feeling that the series was lucky to have aired as long as it did on NBC. All three seasons of Hannibal featured graphic deaths and other gore that is not frequently seen on network television. Season Two, in particular, spared nothing in its depiction of the famed Mason Verger (Michael Pitt) storyline introduced in Thomas Harris’s source material. Ratings for the third season started promisingly for its summer outing, achieving 2.57 million in its season premiere, but fell to a series low of 1.66 million in its following outing.
