This is My New Design: the Evolution of Bryan Fuller’s Master Plan for Hannibal

One of the primary discourses surrounding serialized television shows over the course of the last decade has been the notion of the “Master Plan”. This refers to whether a series’ show-runners have an actual bible or primary narrative outline for the series to follow as a whole over the course of its lifetime or if they simply make up the story as it goes, writing blindly without foresight into the future. 

Arguably, the first serial to truly bring this notion into the mainstream spotlight was the sci-fi program Babylon 5. Its creator, J. Michael Straczynskyi, had developed an elaborate plan to tell a singular storyline, though not one devoid of standalone episodes, spanning all 5 seasons of the series. Taking into account the possibility of cast changes and actor availability, he even devised so-called “trapdoors” that would allow various actors and, in turn, their corresponding characters to exit the series with minimal impact on the show as a whole.

Certainly, the plan evolved over time, and Straczynskyi has been quite candid about this. Perhaps, the biggest changes occurred during the series’ fourth season. Faced with the strong possibility that the series would not received a fifth season renewal, Straczynskyi decided to collapse Seasons 4 and 5 into a single, densely serialized year, eliminating various standalone episodes and bringing the main story arcs and conflicts to a close earlier than anticipated. Then, however, the series did get a fifth year, necessitating the development of new conflicts, plotlines and arcs that had never been part of the plan in the first place.  

This brings me to one of all-time favorite series – Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, a prequel to/adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter novels by Thomas Harris. Prior to the show’s debut, Fuller repeatedly discussed  a 7-season plan for the show that would span virtually every novel in the literary Lecter canon:

§  Season 1-3: Pre-Red Dragon

§  Season 4: Red Dragon

§  Season 5: Silence of the Lambs

§  Season 6: Hannibal

§  Season 7: Post-Hannibal

The first three seasons would constitute a prequel to the first Lecter novel Red Dragon, which introduced Hannibal as an incarcerated killer and Will Graham as the FBI Agent that caught him. In various interviews, Fuller would describe the first three seasons as “unpublished novels”. As these prequel seasons would build to the events of Red Dragon, the show’s third season would have to conclude with Graham exposing Lecter and/or placing him behind bars. As he puts it to Collider:

“We’ve got some fields to play in, before we get to Hannibal incarcerated, in all sorts of ways.  We’ll definitely be getting there.  Red Dragon was the first book in the series.  Imagine that there are three novels that were unpublished, and we’re going to tell those three novels before Red Dragon.  And then, we’ll try to sync up with the timeline of the other books.”

(http://collider.com/bryan-fuller-hannibal-interview/#yP22bslV5yyslCf2.99)

The next three seasons would adapt the books as they were published in chronological order, with Graham taking a backseat in seasons five and six, so as to allow the show to focus largely on Clarice Starling, the main protagonist of Silence. And the last season would function as a sequel to the novels that would resolve Hannibal’s fate in the aftermath of the events of Hannibal, where Starling and Lecter become lovers and fugitives on the run together. Graham would now return as the series’ main protagonist, ostensibly set on stopping Hannibal once and for all.

This is summarized well in an excerpt from Assignment X: (http://www.assignmentx.com/2013/exclusive-interview-hannibal-news-on-season-1-season-2-and-beyond-from-showrunner-bryan-fuller/):

“AX: If you don’t get to run for seven seasons, are you going to make available to the public in some form what the unaired seasons would have been?
 FULLER: Well, when you get into Season Four, you get into the literature. And so Season Four would be RED DRAGON, Season Five would be the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS era, Season Six would be the HANNIBAL era, and then Season Seven would be a resolve to the ending of that book. HANNIBAL ends on a cliffhanger. Hannibal Lecter has bonded with Clarice Starling and brainwashed her and they are now quasi-lovers and off as fugitives, and so that’s a cliffhanger. It might be interesting to resolve that in some way and to bring Will Graham back into the picture. So once we get two more seasons, say, of the television show, those are the aren’t-novelized stories, and then we would get into expansions of the novels after that and kind of using the novels as a backbone for season arcs that would then be kind of enhanced.”

It would seem that Fuller’s design for the show was more or less foolproof, as he had multiple books to use as waypoints in constructing the definitive adaptation of the Lecter story. And yet, by the end of the show’s first season, the series had already deviated in some significant ways from it. In particular, Fuller had to drop his intention to depict the pre-history of the Silence characters Jaime Gumb/Buffalo Bill, the main antagonist of that novel, and his lover/victim Benjamin Raspail, a former patient of Lecter’s, whose head Clarice Starling would find inside a jar within the “Yourself” storage facility. The original pilot script introduces “Benjamin” as the first patient Lecter is seen treating as a therapist.

Moreover, in a scene cut from the final filmed script, Lecter is revealed to have a storage unit within the “Yourself” facility, where he keeps a number of disguises and other personal items that help him maintain his secret identity. An astute viewer could easily connect the dots – at some point during the series Benjamin would die at the hands of Buffalo Bill and Lecter would collect his head, then place it in a jar within the storage unit.

The problem is that Silence of the Lambs is the one novel, to which the producers of the series do not possess adaptation rights, meaning that any characters that originate within that novel, including Starling, Gumb, Raspail and Paul Krendler, are off-limits. Fuller has attempted to secure the rights from MGM in exchange for the use of the Lecter character, but has so far been unsuccessful. As a result, the series’ writers reimagined Benjamin and Gumb as Franklin Froidevaux and Tobias Budge.

Now, Franklin would be a patient of Lecter, who suspects his close friend (possibly lover) Tobias of being a serial killer that turns his victims into human instruments. Instead of setting up threads that would ultimately pay off in the fifth season, the plotline concerning Franklin, Tobias and Lecter culminates in the eighth episode of the first season (Fromage), wherein Lecter snaps Franklin’s neck and subsequently engages Tobias in a fight to the death, from which he emerges victorious.

In an interview with AVClub, Fuller commented on the evolution of the characters (http://www.avclub.com/article/bryan-fuller-walks-us-through-ihannibalis-debut-se-100684):

And Tobias Budge, he was originally going to be Buffalo Bill. It was going to be Jame Gumb and Benjamin Raspail, and that was going to be the episode where we found out exactly how that head ended up in the jar in the storage facility. Then when we couldn’t get rights to that character to tell the story, we came up with something completely different that resulted in one of my favorite episodes and one of my favorite guest stars, with Demore Barnes playing Tobias Budge as a different kind of serial killer who has a cross with Hannibal Lecter through a patient. 

This situation illustrates one of the ways Fuller’s plan for the show would have to adapt to external factors. Additionally, it raises the question of how the series will adapt the Lambs novel, if Fuller doesn’t manage to secure rights to it by the end of season four. 

Moreover, following the airing of the second season finale Mizumono, Fuller described in various interviews a picture of the series’ overarching plan that was radically different from its original incarnation. Now, the third season would primarily become the Hannibal season, transposing the post-Silence storyline of Hannibal being a fugitive on the run pursued by a vengeful Mason Verger from Season 6 unto pre-Red Dragon Season 3. This would help avoid dragging the overarching narrative out, but it also signified that the series would now no longer be seven seasons. As opposed to providing three distinct prequel seasons, three published novel seasons and one original sequel season, the show’s modus operandi is now to avoid adapting the novels in a sequential order, instead intermixing the “published novel” material with the “unpublished novel” original material.

Excerpts:

 From TV Guide 

(http://www.tvguide.com/News/Hannibal-Season2-Finale-Postmortem-Bryan-Fuller-1082245.aspx)

You said next season will be different. Does that mean you're shifting the point of view to be more squarely about Hannibal?


Fuller: Season 3 is going to be a lot of fun because it's going to be taking a lot of disparate elements from the novel Hannibal Rising and the novel Hannibal and mashing them up together as part of the thrust of the season.

You originally had mapped out certain seasons to follow certain books. Is that still your plan, or have you abandoned that timeline?


Fuller: The books won't necessarily be in sequential order. We'll be hitting elements of each of them except Silence of the Lambs in the next season.  

From IGN

(http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/24/hannibal-bryan-fuller-on-season-2s-shocking-end-and-big-changes-in-season-3?page=3):

IGN: As far as the long-term of the show, I've spoken to you in the past about your broader ideas for seven seasons, and where they might be as far as each of the books are concerned. Is that still in place in your mind, as the ideal?

Fuller: Well, as we've gotten further into this series, I've collapsed a couple of seasons in my mind now. As in, “I don't think we would be able to sustain the 13 episodes for that arc that I thought we would have” and “perhaps it's better to collapse this season and this season into one.” So, I'm really thinking a six-season arc, and that really keeps us from treading water.

From Whattheflick?! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqfJHKjs6iw)

“…a lot of the stuff from the novel Hannibal that takes place after The Silence of the Lambs will be incorporated into the third season. So, now that we, we sort of moved up the Fugitive story, which was after Silence of the Lambs and wedged that in-between Red Dragon…”

In response to the question of how many seasons he sees it as, Fuller states: 

“Up to six. Originally, it was a seven season plan and then we kind of condensed seasons three and four because I feel like, the fugitive storyline, to do 13 episodes of that may strain… not only credulity but also the budget.” 

Thus, the current iteration of the plan for the series looks something like this:

§  Season 1-2: Pre-Red Dragon

§  Season 3: Hannibal/Hannibal Rising

§  Season 4: Red Dragon

§  Season 5: Silence of the Lambs

§  Season 6: Post-Hannibal

Under the new paradigm the show will still be doing three seasons prior to adapting Red Dragon, only now the new Season 3 will be largely the Hannibal season, rather than an “unpublished novel”  season.

Fuller’s comments, however, raise some questions. For instance, which seasons exactly were collapsed into one? What was the original plan for the third season, prior to the Fugitive Arc from the Hannibal novel being incorporated into it? In what ways were Seasons 3 and 4 condensed (assuming these were the initially intended S3 and S4 – Fuller’s wording is a tad confusing on this)?

A lot of evidence within the recently aired Season 2 points to the notion that viewers have already witnessed the original Season 3 (OS3) in a condensed/altered form. That is, OS2 and OS3 plotlines had been combined into a single Second Season, with the first seven episodes spanning the former and the last six encompassing the latter. In addition, however, the show’s writers also chose to diverge from the original ending of OS3 (now S2.5), where Hannibal would be caught, to have him escape, setting up the Fugitive Arc. What proof is there to all this?

To begin with, the very fact that the OS6 Fugitive arc had been moved up into Season 3 directly establishes that Hannibal wouldn’t have gone on the run in OS3, in turn meaning that he wouldn’t have been publically exposed at the end of OS2. By considering this in conjunction with the logic of Red Dragon being OS4, which dictated that Hannibal would be incarcerated at the end of OS3, we can easily infer that Hannibal’s public exposure and his incarceration were originally to occur in close proximity to one another (most likely in the OS3 finale), rather than be separated by an entire season’s worth of episodes. This would be in line with the trajectory of the books, where Hannibal was exposed only after Graham caught him.

Therefore, it safe to say the major arcs concerning Will Graham’s time in the Asylum and his subsequent exposure/capture of Hannibal, excluding the OS6 Fugitive Arc, should’ve spanned 26 episodes, rather than 13. Supporting this is the very structure and pacing of the Second Season, which is divided fairly neatly into the Asylum Arc (2.1-2.7) and the Entrapment Arc (2.8-2.13).

When the first season ended, the natural expectation, given storytelling logic and the previous details about the overarching design of the show, was that S2 as a whole would focus on Graham’s time inside the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane, during which he would try to prove his innocence, while continuing to consult with the FBI on various murder cases, mirroring how Lecter consulted the FBI in Red Dragon and Silence. By the end, Graham would prove his innocence and leave the asylum, but without proving Hannibal’s guilt. S3 then would chronicle the now free Graham’s attempt to expose Hannibal and bring him to justice, as well as his involvement with a woman named Molly Foster, who would later become his wife.*

Graham ultimately succeeds in his effort to bring down Lecter, but not before Hannibal physically and psychologically wounds him, leading him to retire from being an FBI consultant and setting the stage for the Red Dragon season.

*(Prior to S2, Fuller stated in various interviews that Molly would be an S3 character under the original 7 Season Plan. It is possible that Molly Foster may still appear in the series’ new third season under the new plan, though I have to wonder how her relationship with Graham would play out, given how the Fugitive Arc would likely leave little opportunity for Graham to enter a long-term relationship.)

The writers, however, resolved the Asylum arc midway through the season, burning through a myriad of plot developments in a considerably shorter time frame than S1, which was fairly deliberate in its pacing yet economical in its storytelling (that is, using a smaller amount of story beats per episode than is standard for a network drama). More specifically, whereas S1 had judiciously spread about 11 arc episodes across 13 hours via the use of standalone killer-of-the-week material, S2 had crammed 11 arc episodes into 7 hours by virtually eliminating the standalone material and practically doubling the average number of beats per episode.

While this approach made S2 comparatively more exciting and entertaining on a week-by-week basis, it also lead to some plot points playing out so quickly, that they didn’t really make their full impact. For example, the opening episodes “Kaiseki” and “Sakizuke” established a new paradigm, wherein Hannibal functioned as the FBI’s “New Will Graham”, aiding Jack Crawford in investigating murders. Hannibal appeared to relish his new role, which allowed him to simultaneously put to good use his super-sense of smell, find new potential victims, enhance his own design as a killer, as well as remove suspicion from himself. However, past the first two episodes, this thread doesn’t really come into play anymore. Prior to Hannibal retiring from this position in 2.6 (following an attempt on his life), the series only presents one other case-of-the-week in 2.4, which Jack doesn’t even need Hannibal’s assistance to solve. One can easily see this as anchoring a half-dozen semi-standalone cases in a full version of the Asylum Arc.

Then, there’s the investigation by Kade Prurnell into Jack Crawford’s misconduct, a point that seems fairly important in the early going, but appears completely dropped after 2.3. Nothing, in fact, seems to impede Jack throughout the rest of the season, despite his assertions previously of “being under the microscope”. And Prurnell remains visibly absent until the season finale, wherein she makes no reference to the Crawford investigation at all. 

Similarly, the plotline focusing on Beverly Katz consulting with Graham on the newest cases, while working as his confidante, comes to such a swift conclusion, that it cannot help but feel rushed. Ditto for the Admirer plotline, which could’ve at least anchored another hour.* All these points would’ve likely received more attention in a full 13-episode season.

(*As a matter of fact, Fuller’s interview with AVClub for 2.5 reveals that the Admirer plot was originally more elaborate and complicated, with the Admirer being a separate character from Male Nurse Matthew Brown. A scene featuring an investigation into the Admirer was cut from 2.3 when Fuller decided to combine Brown and the Admirer into one character, saving on time and simplifying the scenario. Traces of the original plot are arguably present in a scene in 2.3, where Graham, using his gift, uncovers that the Admirer was a close friend of the stag victim, a point that subsequently receives no elaboration, confirmation or refutation.)

The Entrapment Arc, which begins with 2.8, to some extent, resets the premise of the season, allowing Graham to return to therapy with Hannibal and to investigate other killers with Jack (the key difference from Season 1 being that Graham now knows all too well, who Hannibal is and is working with Jack to bring him down) and featuring considerably little narrative overlap with the preceding seven episodes, outside of the opening flash-forward. That is, pretty much all the main plot threads set up in the first two episodes arrived at a resolution with the end of episode 2.7, which actor Hugh Dancy himself accurately described as a “mini-finale”.

Stylistically, it resumes the slower, more deliberate pace of the first season, but employs a more elliptical approach, seemingly skipping over crucial bits of the main plot and leaving certain questions, such as why exactly Jack Crawford is ready and willing to believe Graham about Hannibal’s alter-identity, unresolved. Moreover, it sets up new characters and conflicts, focusing to a considerable extent on the characters of Mason and Margo Verger, who have strong ties to the novel Hannibal, in which they first appeared. In other words, the two halves are so distinct in terms of story focus, structure, pacing, etc., as to give the impression of two short self-contained seasons, rather than a single whole, reflecting the collapse of OS2 and OS3 into one.

Why would Fuller decide to combine and condense the two Major Arcs when there was visibly enough plot in at least the Asylum arc to sustain an entire season? There are likely a number of different reasons working in conjunction. My conjecture is that there were three primary causes.

1. The Asylum arc clearly took the show out of its comfort zone.

That is, it required the series to fundamentally change up its normal format. Confining Will Graham to the Asylum meant limiting his narrative possibilities as a main character – now isolated within the hospital, Graham could no longer go out and physically partake within investigations, while attending therapy sessions with Lecter.

This, of course, is what led to the trial episode Hasssun, wherein the series tackled a courtroom drama to various degrees of success. Fuller himself would later lament having done 2.3, and it is telling the series never really revisited Graham’s court case, which was resolved off-screen once the Chesapeake Ripper showed his hand. Thus, it is likely that, having begun developing the season, the writers decided to return the series to its more familiar rhythms sooner, rather than later out of concern of their main character having little to nothing to do later in the season. So, in hindsight, it is fairly evident that the writers are trying to rush Graham out of the asylum as quickly as possible without immediately negating the new status quo.*

* (A lesser show would’ve likely had Hannibal absolve Graham in the first two episodes, leading to his quick and premature release.)

2. Actor availability

When working on a TV series, one is compelled to constantly factor the availability of actors into narrative construction. If a character is crucial to a specific plotline or episode, but is unavailable due to other commitments, one either has to work around the absence by altering the narrative to exclude the character or recast the role. For instance, the case of Hetienne Park’s Beverly Katz had directly impacted the writing of the Asylum arc. 

Katz was initially to be killed off towards the end of S1. After the writers realized that they hadn’t really serviced the character, they decided to bring Katz back for 10 episodes in S2. Apparent disagreements between the various parties involved in Hetienne Park’s contract negotiations, however, led to a reduced 5-episode stint for Park in S2. This necessitated moving up Katz’a death to 2.5 from 2.10. Obviously, this must’ve had a ripple effect on the arc as a whole. Assuming Katz’s death would always be the impetus for Graham commissioning a hit on Hannibal (which isn’t guaranteed, given how writing tends to evolve), the Admirer plotline would’ve come to a head towards the end of the Season, rather than its first act. 

Simultaneously, three actors crucial to the Asylum arc – Gillian Anderson (Bedelia DuMaurier), Raul Esparza (Dr. Chilton) and Anna Chlumsky (Miriam Lass) - were regulars on other series, limiting their appearances on Hannibal. Gillian Anderson’s commitments to both The Fall and Crisis in particular lead to the abbreviation of a longer storyline concerning DuMaurier and Lecter. As a result, DuMaurier promptly exits the series in Episode 2.2 and reappears only briefly in 2.12 and 2.13.

One can infer that Raul Esparza’s role on Law & Order: SVU had to have similarly affected the writing of the Chilton episodes. As Chilton was a central figure in the Asylum arc, it is likely the writers could not secure him for more than six episodes and so had to resolve the arc as soon as possible to work in Chilton’s absence. Overall then, the compressed availabilities of the actors could’ve very well led to the compression of the original 13-episode arc into seven.

3. Concern regarding cancellation.

Bryan Fuller is no stranger to cancellation. Pushing Daisies, for example, was axed midway through S2, leaving numerous plotlines set up in the first half unresolved. The ratings of Hannibal were fairly low during the first season and it barely came back for a second. Having considered the likelihood that the show might not continue past the end of season 2, the writers may have decided to compress the original 26-episode plan, so as to bring the series to a more definitive conclusion with the S2 finale.*

*(Admittedly, the S2 finale ends on a huge cliffhanger. I would argue, however, it simultaneously provides an overall sense of closure by resolving many lingering questions and utterly eviscerating the series’ initial central premise. Thus, it could still double as a series finale, in case the show would not return.)

While there is a lot of guesswork involved in this, I would say that what should be clear is that by the time the Asylum arc had been written out, the series was no longer ascribing to the original 7-Season plan. What these situations illustrate is that writing is such an organic process, especially in the medium of television, that the most fool-proof plans can go off-track, allowing the series to evolve in a way that nobody could have foreseen from the outset. Actors that portray prominent characters might go off to other shows, ideas that were once interesting lose their appeal, leading to retroactive revision. And plot beats that writers had hoped to reach at one point either come earlier or later, leading to a domino effect on everything else.

One thing I am certain of is that, at best, Hannibal will now be a 5-season series. Its ratings continue to suck, the amount of source material it can draw on keeps dwindling, and it is unlikely that the producers will ever manage to secure the rights to Silence of the Lambs.

Given that Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs are ultimately very similar novels plot-wise (some go so far as to refer to the latter as a remake of the first book, rather than a sequel), it seems logical that Fuller will condense things again, drawing on Silence indirectly to expand Hannibal’s role in Season 4, while avoiding the Buffalo Bill/Clarice Starling plot altogether. This would be necessary, as Lecter has a minimal amount of screen time in the book, whereas Hannibal The Series is ultimately about Graham and Lecter. They are the fulcrums of this program and would remain so, even if the rights to Silence were attained. So, as much as I would love to see this show focus on a female protagonist, I doubt it would suffice to have Graham veer to the sidelines for one season or to confine Lecter to the Asylum for two whole seasons, as per the original 7-Season plan. 

Judging by everything then, here’s how I surmise things will look like in a year or two:

§  Season 1-2: Pre-Red Dragon

§  Season 3: Hannibal/ Hannibal Rising

§  Season 4: Red Dragon/Silence (bits and pieces)

§  Season 5: Post-Hannibal

The fact is, there is no way to know for sure if this is how things will look. It’s entirely possible the show will be cancelled and not return after its third season. It is possible Fuller might manage to secure the rights to Silence or develop a Silence-like story, allowing for a six-season arc. It is possible Fuller will collapse every remaining bit from the novels and the post-Hannibal season into the fourth season to give a fast-paced kickass send-off to Lecter. But I am hoping for the show to ideally have 5 seasons. It’s not too much to let the show falter in quality, nor too little to cut it down prematurely. It would be just right for the series to offer a strong finish to the Lecter saga.

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