The 'Hannibal' Cast Gets Us Ready for the Red Dragon, and a Big Time-Jump
Hannibal fans (including us) are still caught up in Will Graham’s trek to Europe to bring Hannibal Lecter to justice… but a new story arc is about to spread its wings.
Next week, The Hobbit star Richard Armitage joins the Hannibal cast as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, known as the Red Dragon (a key figure in Thomas Harris’s novels). In the video above, Armitage calls his character, who specializes in murdering families, “a really damaged child who grows into…” “A really sweet guy!” his co-star Hugh Dancy (Will) interjects.
Related: ‘Hannibal’ at Comic-Con: Could the Killer Drama Find New Life?
But actually, showrunner Bryan Fuller hints that Dolarhyde does have some redeeming qualities; we’ll see him help a blind woman go to the zoo and experience the animals through touch, for example. “Somebody who’s that sweet, you want to root for that side,” Fuller says. “Who cares about the families? Enough with family values.”
Plus, the Red Dragon arc means a three-year time jump for Will Graham, who’s left the FBI and started a family in that time. “He’s out in the woods, basically,” Dancy says of his character. “He has a wife, Molly, and her son from a previous relationship. And it’s the whole, you know, ‘you dragged me back in’ scenario… which happens quite rapidly.”
Hannibal airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
