The likelihood of Hannibal Season 4 seems to get dimmer with each day removed from that cliff-diving finale, but according to Bryan Fuller, our chances are actually improving. Busy though he, Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy remain, Fuller says the possibility may again open up in late 2017.

Take this with a grain of salt for the moment, as Fuller has his hands full with both Star Trek and American Gods, while both Mikkelsen and Dancy have their own high-profile projects, but an intriguing new interview with Collider gave us an update on the proceedings. According to Fuller, rights to future Hannibal will open as early as next August:

Two years after the last airing of the show, we can investigate our options […] August 2017 is when we can actually start talking about it. That’s when we would have to see what the rights are for the character and for the story, and see who’s interested and how we get it done. I have the story, and the cast is excited for the story, so we’re ready to go if somebody wants to go.

That said, few real details have been clarified of a potential fourth season, one Hugh Dancy claimed “took us back to the first season in a very unexpected way … but it wasn’t the Clarice / Silence of the Lambs storyline.” Producer Martha De Laurentiis also suggested that online piracy might have hurt Hannibal‘’s chances for a fourth season., while Fuller and Mikkelsen agree that a series format was best for any revival, rather than a movie.

It’s a daunting prospect now, let alone by the time we reach August 2017, but might Hannibal Season 4 have a chance after all?

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