‘Hannibal’ season 2 preview: the opening fight scene, Will in jail and the direction of the show
The popular show Hannibal returns tonight for the beginning of the second season., which stars will tons of action and several unanswered questions.
Yahoo TV interviewed Hannibal stars Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, and Caroline Dhavernas (who play Will Graham, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, and Alana Bloom, respectively), along with showrunner Bryan Fuller.
Fans have seen the extensive fight scene between Fishburne and Mikkelsen’s titular character.
“We shot that right away… for 21 hours. It was a lot of fun, and there’s stuff that we left out. It was longer.” Fishburne says with Mikkelsen adding: “Almost twice as long.”
Fishburne concluded “There were two pieces of it that we just had to leave out.”
This is contrasted with Will, trapped in a cell, only supported by Alana.
“Well, it’s kind of a half form of championing, because basically she’s saying, ‘I’m sure he didn’t mean to.’ [Laughs.]” Dancy says. “Which is not full support really. Will is in jail and he’s totally isolated. All of these guys have written him off — including Alana, pretty much — as a killer. And, of course, the only person who knows that he isn’t is Hannibal. And Hannibal is also, against all the odds, still trying to persuade Will to be his friend. So yeah, he’s in a pretty desperate spot.”
Dhavernas clarifies that “Alana doesn’t question his heart — she knows that he was ill when he did what he did, and she wants him to just face what happened so he can heal. But yeah, I think there will always be a tension there… she’s drawn to him, she wants to help him, and she’s also very curious romantically, but she knows she can help him much better if there’s a distance there. But when we start, she believes that he was sick, and then things will happen where she will start questioning that again.”
Fuller addresses the direction of the show.
“Where we ended on the first season was such a delicious place that it’s a big springboard for the next season. First season, nobody knew who Hannibal was, and second season, one person knows who Hannibal is and is trying to convince everybody else who assumes that he’s guilty of the crime. That gives you this sort of Hitchcockian “The Man Who Knew Too Much” dynamic. Another Hitchcockian principle is that by starting with the fight between Jack Crawford and Hannibal, this is going to get explosive. So we’re essentially showing the audience: Here’s the bomb. It’s going to go boom. Who knows when it’s going to go? So every time Jack and Hannibal are in a scene together, you’re like, is this it?”
Check out the full interview HERE
Season 2 premieres Friday, Feb. 28 at 10 p.m. on NBC