Hugh Dancy Was Almost Cast As Hannibal Lecter Before Playing ...

Hugh Dancy played Will Graham in NBC’s Hannibal, but he could have joined the Hannibal Lecter franchise earlier as the famous serial killer, though that would have stopped him from joining the show. Hannibal Lecter is one of the most popular serial killers in pop culture, appearing in books, movies, and TV shows, and it all began in 1981 with the novel Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris. The success of the novel led to its film adaptation in 1986, titled Manhunter, and Harris wrote a sequel novel titled The Silence of the Lambs (1988), which was turned into one of the greatest horror movies ever.

Harris continued exploring the character of Hannibal Lecter in a third novel, simply titled Hannibal, published in 1999 and adapted into a movie of the same name in 2001. Due to the success of the movies, Red Dragon was remade as a movie in 2002, now with its original title, and the franchise continued with a fourth and final novel titled Hannibal Rising, a prequel to the previous books. Of course, Hannibal Rising also got the big-screen treatment and was released in 2006. A big part of the success and popularity of the Hannibal movies was Anthony Hopkins’ performance as the brilliant killer, but as Hannibal Rising is a prequel, another actor had to take on the role, and that could have been Hugh Dancy.

Related: How Hannibal Season 3 Episode 3 Improved On Hannibal Rising's Origin Story

Hopkins made his first appearance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Hopkins reprised his role as Lecter in Hannibal and Red Dragon, but for Hannibal Rising, Gaspar Ulliel took his place. Hannibal Rising tells the backstory of Lecter, beginning with the death of his parents at the end of World War II and culminating with his arrival in the United States. Of course, finding the new Hannibal Lecter wasn’t an easy task, and before Ulliel was cast many actors were in consideration and even tested for the role. Among the actors who reportedly tested for the role of Hannibal were Hayden Christensen (who at the time had just been freed from the Star Wars prequels), Macaulay Culkin, Dominic Cooper, Tom Payne, and Hugh Dancy.

Dancy’s career began in 1998 with minor roles in the TV shows Trial & Retribution and The New Adventures of Robin Hood and made the jump to the big screen in 2001 in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. He then appeared in the movies King Arthur, Ella Enchanted, and Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction, but his big break came in the TV series Hannibal in 2013. In it, Dancy played Will Graham, the FBI profiler who captured Lecter (played by Mads Mikkelsen) and was almost killed in the process, and who later had to seek his assistance to catch a serial killer known as “The Tooth Fairy”. Now, had Dancy gotten the role of Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising, he likely wouldn’t have been considered to play Will Graham in the TV series, as Hannibal Rising was a critical failure.

The TV series Hannibal, on the other hand, was very well-received from the beginning, but it was canceled after three seasons due to a decline in viewership, even if the story was praised by critics and viewers throughout its whole run. Perhaps Hugh Dancy was meant to join the Hannibal Lecter franchise but not as the title character, which worked out for the best as his performance as Will Graham and the story in Hannibal were a lot better than what the movie adaptation of Hannibal Rising did.

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