Hannibal hasn’t even completed its second season, but with good ratings and a strong critical response, NBC has shown the good taste (pun intended) to pick it up for a third. The show has produced enough twists and turns and a few WTF moments to keep any audience satisfied.

Hugh Dancy plays FBI profiler Will Graham, who is entrapped in the serial killer’s games. This is good drama and the byplay between Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) is worth the time and effort.

Hugh Dancy reflects on his character and the challenges of doing Hannibal.

The Flickcast: Can you talk about getting into the head space of Will because he’s a terribly troubled character?

HUGH DANCY: Yes. He’s not the happiest character I’ve ever played. Well, there’s obviously – other than Bryan’s [Fuller/Executive Producer] scripts, there’s Thomas Harris’s book, Red Dragon, that I went to before we started filming the first season, and that’s been the template ever since.

It was just, as a description of a character from the inside of his head, the most rich material that you can hope for as an actor.

Breakfast with Hannibal. That’s not what the NBC press reps were calling it, but the journalists present for the early morning Q&A panel on the show had a field day speculating on the possible culinary choices. Unfortunately the breakfast menu was the normal hotel convention food, but thankfully the panel made up for it.

Hannibal, now in its second season, is based on the Thomas Harris novel, Red Dragon, which investigates the early journey of forensic psychiatrist/serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).

Hannibal is probably one of the most well know psycho villains in the world. We all know what’s going to happen…eventually, but the road trip to reach that final act is fascinating, startling and sometimes very disturbing. It probably also says a lot about us, the audience, as well. We are the ultimate voyeurs.

Mads Mikkelsen is an excellent choice for this early version of the pervasive serial killer. After the panel he thoughtfully answered more questions from the press.

The Flickcast: Do you think Hannibal hits all of the points of being a psychopath, or what is he?

Friday night used to be pretty much a wasteland when it came to TV shows. People go out on Friday nights so networks used to dump their least interesting shows, or ones they didn’t care much about, at the end of the work week.

Now, with pretty much everyone having a DVR and the networks needing to compete with cable and online, Friday’s TV fare has greatly improved. Case in point are two shows we’re big fans of: Grimm and Hannibal.

Both are new tonight, now that the Olympics are over, and we’ve got previews for both of them for you. We won’t get too much into details about what happens in the new episodes, but you can definitely expect some surprises and a lot of action.

Grimm airs at 9/8C followed by Hannibal at 10/9C on NBC. Check out the previews after the break.

That’s right fans of intense, adult TV drama, NBC has apparently heard you and decided to give Hannibal a second season of 13 episodes. The announcement came today, almost two full weeks after NBC’s Upfront presentation.

The series, based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris and developed for television by Bryan Fuller, will return mid-season (after most of NBC’s new Fall shows tank). We kid, we kid.

“We’re so proud of Bryan’s vision for a show that is richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling,” NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said. “There are many great stories still to be told.”

Could not agree more. This show is almost too good for TV and with several other entities, including Amazon, waiting in the wings should NBC not renew the series, we were confidant it would cary on in some form or another.

Fortunately, it looks like NBC decided to make a good decision here and go with the quality. We’re very glad they did.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt discuss a bunch of new topics and revisit a few old ones. Some of these include the Evil Dead beboot (or Army of Darkness, as Chris likes to call it), Game of Thrones, Mad Men, horror movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, Jon Hamm’s big problem and more.

They also made some picks his week, as usual, with Matt’s being the upcoming Marty Langford and Mark Sikes documentary on the making of Roger Corman’s mythic Fantastic Four movie and Chris’ being the new NBC show Hannibal.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook or via email.

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Even though it’s hard to imagine another actor besides Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter (although Brian Cox wasn’t so bad either), we’re going to be getting a new Hannibal anyway. This time, he’s on TV.

Who is this new evil mastermind? None other than one of our favorite, underappreciated actors: Mads Mikkelsen. With that in mind, and pretty much only that, we’ve decided to give NBC’s new series Hannibal a chance.

In case you’re not famiiar, the show follows the adventures of a younger Will Graham (played by William Petersen in Michael Mann’s Manhunter and Hugh Dancy in this version) as he works to solve serial murders for the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit. Of course, he can’t do it alone, so he enlists the help of famed psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter.

Obviously, things don’t go as planned. Which is, of course, to be expected. To get you interested in the show and ready for the premiere, we’ve got a ton of previews for it after the break. Check ’em out.

Hannibal premieres tonight at 10/9C on NBC.

I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I’m on the fence about NBC’s upcoming series about a young Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter called, appropriately enough, Hannibal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the guy playing Hannibal in the show, the awesome and under-appreciated Mads Mikkelsen.

My problem is with the premise and, from what I’ve seen so far, the execution. Also, I just don’t buy the guy playing Graham, even though I’ve enjoyed Hugh Dancy in other roles. He seems out of place here

Plus, I’m not sure the world really needs a series covering this subject matter from a “regular” network that probably can’t do it justice. This really seems more like a show that belongs on FX or even HBO. But hey, who knows, I could be wrong.

You can have more to go on and judge for yourself by watching the new trailer NBC posted from the show. Be sure and check it out after the break.

Look for Hannibal to premiere on April 4th.

I have to admit it, I’m skeptical. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

As much as I’m a fan of the actor Mads Mikkelsen, the upcoming show with him as Hannibal Lecter just looks, well, kinda weak. Yes, I’m talking about NBC’s Hannibal, which depicts a young FBI Special Agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and his search for serial killers.

The catch? He’s getting advice from none other than Hannibal Lecter, the most dangerous serial killer of them all. See, the premise sounds pretty cool, it’s just the execution (no pun intended) that seems suspect.

Anyway, check out a teaser for the new show after the break and judge for yourself. Hannibal comes to NBC on April 4th.

The upcoming Hannibal TV series, created by the fantastic Bryan Fuller, is shaping up to be quite the event. So much so that the director of the pilot, David Slade, and series Hannibal, Mads Mikkelsen both left high-profile comic book movies for this show.

Now the show has snagged a seasoned acting veteran for an important recurring role, as learned by The Hollywood Reporter:

Laurence Fishburne is on Hannibal Lecter’s case. NBC’s upcoming Hannibal take has added the former CSI: Crime Scene Investigation actor to play Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit… Fishburne will recur in the role played by Dennis Farina (Manhunter), Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs) and Harvey Keitel (Red Dragon) in the feature film takes based on the Thomas Harris novels.

Fishburne is a great addition to an already well put together cast. This is one of those projects that seemed suspect on paper, but now that it is actually all coming together it has piqued our interest.

Hannibal follows a prequel story line from the Harris novels and films, but leads into Red Dragon should the series last into its third season. Knowing a defined arc with a predetermined destination is one of those touches that proves to us why we have faith in Fuller as a show creator.

The series has a 13 episode mid-season order on NBC, keep tuned to The Flickcast for any new updates about this intriguing new series.

It seems the filming of the Hannibal pilot has devoured the time of at least two of the principle people involved. We already told you that David Slade is dropping out of the Daredevil reboot, in part to direct the pilot.

Now it seems that one of the new series’ stars is having to back out of yet another Marvel movie project. Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the titular cannibal in the new series, was all set to take on a villain role in Thor 2, but now has to back out due to conflicting schedules.

This is a real shame, because Mikkelsen has the right qualities for a foe of the God of Thunder. It was rumored that he was actually going to play The Executioner, who is basically a minion for the Enchantress, which means we might not get some one as good as Mads to fill his shoes.

The Hannibal series must really be exciting if it is winning out over Marvel projects these days, especially for a character actor like Mikkelsen who could have potentially been apart the Avengers movie-verse.

Then again it is not altogether surprising, Marvel is developing a reputation of low-balling a lot of the actors in these films. And while the exposure and potential future opportunities a movie like Thor 2 would provide, the guaranteed money and work of a TV series is tough to turn down.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.