It is none of these. I don't know if you were around in 2014-2015, when we had the main campaign to try to get the show picked up somewhere else, but we ended up being very close. The main issue was that Bryan Fuller had commitments to two new shows in the meantime (Star Trek: Discovery and American Gods), and wouldn't be able to work on Hannibal at all for at least a solid year, possibly more. The network that was interested -- I don’t think we ever knew who it was -- wanted a faster return on their investment. That is understandable, from their point of view. The shows that were being picked up in 2014 and thereabouts were able to resume production quickly.
I’m going to be controversial here, and I can be that way because I have nothing invested in the fandom besides my own quiet corner. I fully believe that the reason why Hannibal has not been brought back yet is because of Bryan Fuller. I will explain below:
Before Hannibal, Bryan Fuller was known to leave shows after the first season if they were renewed. Famously, he left Dead Like Me due to “creative differences,” and Mandy Patinkin went with him. Hannibal was the only show that Fuller was able to run successfully for more than two seasons, and even in season 3, he had to cede some creative control to Steve Lightfoot. Fuller is a micromanager: while it suited Hannibal relatively well, it hasn’t worked for his other shows, where he has had to share power and control with other people.
The most recent example of this is American Gods. AG was an astounding success, and Starz desperately wanted to renew it for season 2. But Fuller blew up the deal, apparently, by asking for a tremendous budget that the network was unwilling to provide. Keep in mind that Starz is no slouch -- they have some very lush shows in their repertoire, such as Outlander and Black Sails. But the amount of money Fuller wanted was beyond what they were willing to provide. Fuller drove a hard bargain: he walked, taking some of the actors with him (most notably, Gillian Anderson). He was replaced. American Gods has not been able to achieve the same success as it had in season 1 and has had a lot of drama behind the scenes. I find it difficult to believe that AG would not have continued to be a success had Fuller stayed, and I think it is likely that he put the show on life support by leaving. But sometimes, when you try to make a big deal, it doesn’t always work.
The lack of more seasons of Hannibal has absolutely nothing to do with the show being too edgy, or too gay, or the Clarice show, and everything (IMO) to do with Fuller being Kryptonite to his own shows. I think there’s a very good reason he’s only been tapped to do features since he left AG. I know this is hard to read, because he is so loved by the fandom, but what we see is not necessarily what producers see. And television producers, when they see Fuller, are seeing a risk.
(I pointedly did not mention Star Trek: Discovery, where a similar thing happened, as I am not sure that Fuller was meant to stay past one season. But regardless, the pattern holds true: Fuller left Disco, and the show has suffered from behind-the-scenes problems. The only reason why I believe Disco has survived is because it was the flagship show for an independent platform, CBS On Demand.)
I am saying this because I don’t want the fans to blame themselves. It is not our fault. We worked very hard, back in season 3, to get Hannibal to survive, and it almost worked. But I don’t think -- and have never thought -- the show not being picked up was due to any other factor than Bryan Fuller.
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