Posted in: NBC, streaming, TV | Tagged: bryan fuller, hannibal, hugh dancy, Lecter, mads mikkelsen, season 4, Will Graham

Hannibal: Fuller on Who Would Initiate First Kiss; "Unused Footage"?

Back in April of this year during an interview with Vulture about his on-screen career, Mads Mikkelsen was asked about his turn as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Bryan Fuller's take on author Thomas Harris' world (NBC's Hannibal). One area that was broached was that moment in the third season finale with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) that had Fannibals either hoping for or convinced a kiss was going to happen between the two. While Mikkelsen explained that the moment was definitely deserving of a kiss at least being considered, the actor explained that it never came to be. "No, we didn't. Never went for the kiss," the actor revealed. "Bryan loved it, but he was like, 'Too much, guys. It's too obvious.' And he was absolutely right. But I think we were just stuck on that. And a lot of the Fannibals wanted it as well. It's been a subject of homoerotic fan art. And for good reason, because they are so united as twins in many ways. But we never wanted it to be a physical thing. It was something much bigger than that." So if that's the case, then what's all of this talk of "unused footage" from Fuller?

Responding to a question from a fan on Twitter about who would initiate the first kiss- Will or Hannibal- Fuller dropped a reference to "unused footage" to answer the question- and "it was definitely Hannibal moving in for the smooches." So while that's not enough to say that there's a kissing scene between Will and Hannibal, is Fuller insinuating that there are some moments on the cutting room floor that would make a kiss about to happen much more obvious- and Hannibal being the one taking the initiative? Hmmm… 

Though admitting that working on the series was "brutal because we had long hours" with "texts were high-IQ texts," Mikkelsen revealed in that same interview that there was no doubt that the crew would welcome a return to the Hannibal universe. "I would love to go back. Everybody wants to go back, and if there's only one season and we're sure about that, he can finish it in a proper, surprising, stunning way." As for that age-old debate that the series would've been better served on cable or streaming, Mikkelsen sees both sides of the argument. "I've been wondering if we had been on some other platform and could do whatever we wanted, would we have gone more for the graphic stuff and forgotten some of the poetry? Maybe it was a good thing we had to hold back," he explained. "It served the show really well that we didn't go full-blast 'Walking Dead' on it."

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