IfHannibalever gets a fourth season, series star Mads Mikkelsen is hoping the show will introduce Buffalo Bill. Originally played by Ted Levine inSilence of the Lambs, Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb serves as the main antagonist. Also featured in the original 1988 novel, the character is a sadistic serial killer who skins his murder victims to make suits with their flesh. In one particularly memorable scene from the movie, Buffalo Bill dances nude in the mirror while the Q Lazzarus song “Goodbye Horses” plays in the background.
Needless to say, Buffalo Bill is quite a character, and Mikkelsen would love to see how the serial killer would fit into theHannibaluniverse. In a recent interview with IndieWire, the actor reiterated series creator Bryan Fuller’s desire to include content fromSilence of the Lambsinto a potential season 4. Mikkelsen also specifically mentions Buffalo Bill as someone he wants to see adapted, even if he’ll be reimagined for the series.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that if it does happen, we would love to go intoSilence of the Lambs. That’s always been an issue because they didn’t have the rights for that book. But that’s obviously the most famous part and we’d love to go in there. We’d obviously switch it around a little and do all kinds of crazy stuff with it. That story is so interesting and the characters in it are as interesting. We’d switch around the genders and maybe even put two characters into one. We would love to find someone to playBuffalo Bill. That’s going to be tough. We found a Hannibal, so it’s possible.”
Mads Mikkelsenpraises Levine as a “fantastic actor” based on his performance inSilence of the Lambs, and he also has someone else in mind for who could play Buffalo Bill inHannibal. He namedBoardwalk Empirestar Michael Pitt as someone he’d “love to see” as Buffalo Bill. The only problem is that Pitt has already been featured inHannibalas Mason Verger before the role was recast with Joe Anderson in the third season.
If another season ofHannibalgoes into production anytime soon, Mikkelsen probably won’t get his wish. At this time, MGM still isn’t allowing for Fuller and theHannibalteam touse the charactersfeatured inSilence of the Lambs. This is due to the studio working on the upcoming seriesClarice, which will star Rebecca Breeds as Clarice Starling. In the works at CBS, a premiere date hasn’t yet been set for the show.
A critically-acclaimed hit,Hannibalis a show many fans feel ended way too soon when Fox pulled the plug in 2015. In the years since, Fuller has been very open about his continuous desire to one day make some new episodes of the series. IfClaricehappens to flop when it arrives on CBS, perhaps MGM will finally be more open to letting teamHannibaluse Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill in a new season ofHannibal. This news comes to us fromIndieWire.
