Streaming giants decline chance to pick up Hannibal
Both Amazon and Netflix say no to the axed NBC drama.
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Both Amazon and Netflix have declined the chance to pick up Hannibal, after it was axed by NBC.
@MikeBarbre I'M SORRY TO REPORT @amazon AND @netflix HAVE PASSED ON #HANNIBAL S4 BUT WE'RE STILL INVESTIGATING POSSIBILITIES
— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) July 6, 2015
Whether that’s directly due to cast members being released from contracts is unclear.
Both streaming services were considered the best hopes of the show continuing, especially given Amazon holds the rights to the first three seasons.
That still leaves other possibilities such as NBC-owned Syfy, USA or Esquire, which are all heavy on scripted dramas as of late.
But as Variety recently noted, problems can arise without NBC involved, as an international component is key and much funding comes from Europe, which is how Gaumont, the French studio behind Hannibal, championed for the current season’s renewal.
Fuller recently said, “Without an NBC component, it’s a little complicated. Even some of our international partners, because there’s no NBC component, will pass on a fourth season.”
Fuller is keeping the writers intact, just in case.
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5 Responses
Ah so that’s why it kept getting renewed. US ad revenue is making up less and less of network revenues.
I personally never got it. Well made, great acting but the stories weren’t interesting (just fodder for the writers to play with) the dream sequences excessive and overblown and the main premise, with its heavy foreshadowing, removed rather than created any drama or suspense.
No surprise there, once the complications came to light.
Once it was revealed that Amazon owned the rights to the repeats that pretty much ruled out Netflix, and given any renewal would need to wait for Fuller to finish with the 1st season of American Gods and then they’d have to renegotiate with the cast (and that assumes in particular Mads and Hugh were still available), the chances of any perspective buyer not viewing things as too complicated was (and is) very slim.
Me thinks Hannibal won’t have a 4th season. Just hoping it is wrapped up and no cliffhanger for the 3rd season finale.
A cliff hanger wouldn’t make any difference-we know where this is going…
“Fuller is keeping the writers intact, just in case.”
Good to know that Bryan hasn’t gone full-on Norman Bates then. Though, from the writing in this last season, a little … um, ‘selective team incentivization’ … followed by a full 9-course degustation for the remaining writers wouldn’t have gone astray.