I appreciate and admire movies that take chances. They try something that may have been done a few times but not enough to exhaust the genre. Therefore, I went into a screening of Dust Bunny with a lot of excitement, especially to see how it pays tribute to Bruce Lee.

I have seen a few of Bryan Fuller’s TV shows, and he has a particular style and tone to his work that I enjoy. Therefore, I definitely wanted to see what he brought to his first feature film directorial debut, especially with it being a story that highlights the power of imagination.

Warning: Dust Bunny spoilers are ahead. Proceed with caution

Dust Bunny Reminded Me Just How Powerful Imagination Can Be

Dust Bunny follows Aurora (Sophie Sloan), a young orphan who suffers from a dust-amassing monster living under her bed who has eaten her caregivers. Children often claim monsters live down there, but that's never actually the case...until now. Part of what makes this such a fun concept is that Fuller takes a common trope of the childhood experience and turns it into an incomprehensible reality, like taking a child’s drawing and creating a 3-D version of it.

In that way, everything about Dust Bunny feels like it floated out of a child’s dream or imagination: The way it’s shot, the set design, the costumes, and the characters. The movie never quite feels real but you immediately accept everything as reality. Dust Bunny has been many years in the making and you feel that because you can see how much thought went into everything. It’s all a labor of love and a tribute to the power of imagination, especially that of a child.

Even if this is the real world, it’s also Aurora’s world. She holds the power to make it flourish or collapse - all through her powerful imagination. Dust Bunny shows how belief and dreaming can guide an imaginary or real world.

Imagination Helps The Film Blur Reality And Fiction

When Aurora claims she has a monster under her bed early on, we do actually see this monster in the flesh (as it were), but still don’t quite believe her claims. It’s then shown that some of what Aurora experiences doesn't quite align with viewers' sense of reality. For example, the first fight that Resident 5B (Mads Mikkelsen) gets into is funneled through Aurora’s imagination as him killing off a dragon, when he was actually taking out a bunch of foes beneath a dragon decoration.

Because Aurora doesn’t quite understand Resident 5B’s hitman nature, and finds her own ways to explain other details that she might not logically understand, it keeps us wondering if the dust bunny monster really exists, or if it is also a figment of her imagination meant to shield her from something more sinister at play.

At one point, I worried it the film would fall back on a brutal twist revealing that Aurora actually has been killing these families with malice. Granted, she is technically responsible, but not through active intentions You aren’t quite sure what’s real or Aurora’s imagination until the end of the movie.

The Dust Bunny Ending Works Because Of Its Emphasis On Imagination (And A Bit Of Real Magic)

Dust Bunny has such a fun and hilarious final act. It lives up to the hype and really delivers an over-the-top reveal after one of the coolest hallways fight scenes since Daredevil. When you watch the other hitmen, police, Resident 5B, and others finally seeing and suffering the wrath of the monster themselves, it's clear Aurora has been telling the truth.

But her truth is different from anything objective, as it's revealed she has had control over the monster as its owner, more or less, who believed it into existence. In the end, she's now aware of her ability to guide the beast and use it to her advantage. For a dark family movie that features parents getting chomped on, it's a fairly positive and uplifting conclusion.

Dust Bunny may not have been on your radar but it is absolutely worth catching as one of the final gems among the 2025 movie releases.

Dust Bunny is playing at a theater near you.

Some plot spoilers below for the currently in-theaters feature Dust Bunny, so tread lightly if you haven't yet watched. (But seriously, go watch it.)

Bryan Fuller's feature debut Dust Bunny is the kind of spooky fare that totally made sense to hold as a post-Halloween 2025 movie release. Sure, it's R-rated and gets pretty violent, with lots of people meeting their makers in imaginative ways, but those elements are filtered through many other genres and tones than mere horror. We're talking Mads Mikkelsen as a hitman saving a quirky young girl from a fairy tale boogeyman and the far less fantastical line-up of foes aiming to kill him and anyone in his presence. Plus, it's heavily influenced by Bruce Lee.

To sum that offbeat premise up with a rave: Dust Bunny is a whimsical-ass delight from start to finish. (And I'm not the only one touting its excellence, or using some form of the word "whimsical.") As all my fellow Fuller-heads out there would no doubt agree, it's precisely the movie alchemy one would expect from the brain behind Wonderfalls, Hannibal and Dead Like Me. The director talked with CinemaBlend ahead of Dust Bunny's release, and when I asked about the multi-genre approach to Aurora's story, he told me:

Much like a tale from the Brothers Grimm, Dust Bunny gets right into the thick of it with Sophie Sloan's school-age Aurora. Her living situation seems normal enough at first, despite the fact that she so easily slips away and follows her unnamed neighbor, Resident 5B, into town and watches him take down a massive dragon via shadow magic. (At least that's what it felt like while watching.) Without drawing attention to it, that early sequence cleanly sets up the split dynamic between Aurora and her neighbor's perspectives.

Bryan Fuller talked about bringing the various narrative strands together with these two characters guiding the way, but without holding the audience's collective hands by way of exposition. As he put it:

Now, we obviously can't talk about Mads Mikkelsen's character literally entering a dragon (or at least a giant parade decoration of a dragon) without getting back into the Bruce Lee of it all. The martial arts legend, who was a movie and TV star on top of everything else, didn't live long enough to reach the age of CGI dragons on Game of Thrones. But I bet Lee and Mikkelsen's character could have overpowered all of those beasts. Or at least one of them.

Fuller talked about that early fight sequence was so key to not just the rest of the movie, but for his longtime kinship with his lead actor.

Anyone who's ever tried to use nunchucks as a child without any guidance likely also knocked themselves stupid more than once. But how many can say they grew up to play Hannibal Lecter and a hitman living his best Bruce Lee life?

A project whose life began 10 years earlier as a potential episode of Amazing Stories, Dust Bunny turned into a joyful highlight reel for Bryan Fuller in terms of what he was getting to do, and it sounds like all involved were happy to work hard to bring this unique vision to life. It helps when you get to use your actor's name in the fighting style, as Fuller does here:

Gateway kung fu horror sounds like the coolest movie genre possible for my 9-year-old self. And definitely also my 43-year-old self. I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed Dust Bunny's monstrous frights and kinetic fights at any age.

Speaking of the fights, Bryan Fuller told me the excellent story that one of Dust Bunny's other fantastic action sequences — the hallway fight — was choreographed in part using an iPhone video of action figures flipping around. He shared:

Everybody needs that kind of playtime to shake up the usual drudgery of work. But I dare say that's an enviable example of playtime pulling double duties as work. And the video evidence is out there.

If Hollywood could ever go back to a point where indie filmmakers were more prevalent and as valuable to theater chains as would-be-blockbuster directors, maybe Dust Bunny wouldn't feel like such a singular experience. Wait, no, it absolutely would, since Bryan Fuller is one of a kind.

As is the adorable Sophie Sloan, who is somehow just as much of an eye-catching talent as Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver, who also brings the goods as Resident 5B's superior. Other co-stars include David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson, and Sheila Atim.

Dust Bunny is in theaters now, and I hear the monster under your seat will go get your popcorn if you ask real nice. Not like normal nice, but really nice.

The family horror flick isn’t a genre you hear about all too often — there certainly aren’t a lot of kid-friendly options on the upcoming horror movie list — and yet, here we are with Dust Bunny, Bryan Fuller’s feature directorial debut. Mads Mikkelsen stars as a hitman who his 8-year-old neighbor, Aurora (newcomer Sophie Sloan), hires after her family is killed by the monster under her bed. Critics saw the film ahead of its release on the 2025 movie calendar, and they have strong (but positive) reactions.

Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian and a few others also appear in this fantastical thriller that CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable calls a “must-see,” but Dust Bunny is really all about the relationship between the little girl and the killer for hire. Natalia Keogan of AV Club gives it a B, noting how impressive it is for Bryan Fuller to tackle all of these moving parts — monster puppetry, a new child actor and lots of VFX — with such confidence in his first time at the helm. Keogan says:

Rotem Rusak of Nerdist raves about Dust Bunny for doing something new, blending comedy seamlessly into action-horror and making fantasy exist alongside reality. Every frame is purposeful, the critic says, and Sophie Sloan delivers a performance well beyond her years. Rusak continues:

Michael Gingold of Fangoria writes that the unique tone of handling dark subject matter with whimsical humor is Bryan Fuller’s specialty, and despite its R rating — for some human fight scenes, rather than monster-involved violence — it should work as an appropriate gateway to horror for younger viewers. (Parents should use their own discretion.) Gingold writes:

Aimee Hart of Polygon agrees that the R rating feels unwarranted and says this is definitely worth your time. Combining the mundane with the fantastic is what Bryan Fuller does best, Hart says, and Dust Bunny is able to delight and horrify in equal measure. The critic writes:

Carlos Aguilar of Variety calls the film “morbidly fantastical” and appreciates how, despite the bond that forms between the Intriguing Neighbor and Aurora, Bryan Fuller’s tone fends off sappiness, along with Mads Mikkelsen’s “grizzled nonchalance.” Sophie Sloan is impressive in how she handles the movie’s deadpan demeanor. More from the review:

Overall, critics are impressed with Bryan Fuller’s directorial debut, as it has earned a Certified Fresh 86% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. For anyone looking for something outside of the typical superhero movie or holiday rom-com, this gateway horror that combines the monster under the bed with real-life hitmen and plenty of surrealism might be a good option.

Dust Bunny is now in theaters, as of Friday, December 12.

Star Trek: Voyager is one of my favorite series, mainly because it contains some of the absolute best and most WTF moments of Trek. Bryan Fuller was responsible for 20 of those episodes, some of which are considered the best in the series. Given that, CinemaBlend had to ask him about his favorite memories from working on the show, and after hearing his response, I wish the newer projects had more of this.

CinemaBlend's Nick Venable spoke with Fuller ahead of the release of his project on the 2025 movie schedule, Dust Bunny, and he discussed Trek with the famed writer. When asked about his favorite experiences with the franchise, the creative couldn't say enough, especially regarding how the show did two-parter episodes:

Shots fired at Star Trek: The Next Generation, but given that it already receives so much praise and admiration for having some of the best Star Trek characters, I'm going to allow it. I can't remember many two-part episodes of TNG, except for the finale, which Fuller mentioned was initially made as a single episode and later split into two parts. Also, shoutout to Fuller for randomly throwing "Bride of Chaotica" into the conversation, though it's not a traditional two-parter in Star Trek.

I can remember many of Star Trek: Voyager's two-parters, some of which Bryan Fuller wrote. He talked about the difference in how they executed those episodes, and in the process, created some of the best Trek episodes of all time:

Annorax is near the top of my list for the best Voyager villains, and "Year Of Hell" is probably one of the most memorable two-parter episodes for me. It's good to know Bryan Fuller has as much appreciation for those episodes as fans do, though that's not surprising, since many of the show's writers and creatives are fans themselves.

I'd love for Star Trek to get back to doing two-parter episodes when new shows and seasons arrive during the 2026 TV schedule. However, I'm also aware that's a feat easier said than done.

Strange New Worlds managed to do a two-parter to bridge the gap between Seasons 2 and 3, but the impact of it was somewhat ruined thanks to the writer's strike delaying the season by a couple of years. As such, it's hard to judge that effort, as even the showrunners admitted Season 3 suffered from the constant start-and-stop nature of writing during that time.

Even so, doing a two-parter episode in the current climate, when new Star Trek episodes are longer, budgets are higher, and episode counts for seasons are much shorter, is a big ask. Change is the only constant when it comes to television, and it feels like things have changed rapidly since Voyager ended and the new generation of Trek began with Discovery.

That said, I still want to see it happen. A two-parter episode by today's Star Trek standards would practically be a movie, and as Paramount Skydance can attest to, we need those back. Plus, I just love the anticipation of being left on a cliffhanger, and I miss that feeling so badly. So, hopefully, the latest generation of Trek writers can figure out how to "Make it so," as Picard would say.

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+, and with Robert Picardo returning as the EMH in the upcoming series Starfleet Academy, now is the perfect time to revisit the original series he starred in. I'm eager to see The Doctor return and teach a new generation of cadets, and would love to see how he'll adapt to a new generation and era of the Federation. I'd also love to see some more two-part episodes, too.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the Friday the 13th series is languishing. It’s similar to the issues plaguing Marvel Studios over Blade. You have vampires, and a sunglasses-wearing, sword-wielding vampire hunter. Go. With Friday the 13th, you have a killer in a hockey mask, and a camp filled with horny camp counselors. Go. But it has been 15 years (!!) since 2009’s standalone Friday the 13th movie, directed by Marcus Nispel, and then years of legal headaches and rights disputes. One project that had Jason fanatics ecstatic was the A24 and Peacock series Crystal Lake, helmed by Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller. And in a massive info dump, we are learning why that show remains in limbo, and also how Charlize Theron would have been involved.

In a fantastic new feature published to The Wrap, details are being laid out as to why A24’s first foray into IP storytelling, Crystal Lake, has stalled. The specifics sound familiar to anyone who has been tracking the entertainment industry for a short amount of time: budget concerns, arguments over creative vision, and the lingering effects of the 2023 writers strike also seem to have helped pump the brakes on what sounds like an incredible exploration of the Jason Voorhees. And at the top of the report, there’s previously unannounced news that Academy Award winner Charlize Theron was “eyed” to play the pivotal role of Pam Voorhees, Jason’s mother and the real killer in the initial Friday the 13th film.

Ugh, I want this show to happen so badly.

According to the report, Crystal Lake would have spanned several seasons, and spent its time expanding on the mythology of the first four movies in the original Friday the 13th series. Those really are the strongest overall chapters of the saga, and follow somewhat of a chronological storyline that begins with Mrs. Voorhees attacking camp counselors because they allowed her son, Jason, to drown in the titular lake. After 1984’s Friday the 13th part four, ironically titled The Final Chapter, the series basically went off the rails. It featured seriously cool kills. But the narrative stopped making any sort of sense.

Fans of Bryan Fuller hoped that he could do for Jason and Pamela Voorhees what he did for Hannibal Lecter with the celebrated series Hannibal. Critics adored the intelligent series, and the show ended too soon.

Is this the case with Crystal Lake? There’s hope at the end of the Wrap piece, with sources close to A24 claiming they still intend to produce the show, and different creatives being eyed who might start over from scratch instead of continuing Fuller’s vision. Then again, The Wrap cites agents who refer to the unproduced Crystal Lake as “radioactive,” which is far from promising.

I still think the idea of a multi-season, serious Crystal Lake series sounds incredible. But I’d feel a lot better about it if Bryan Fuller’s hands were on the wheel, steering the vehicle through production.

Mads Mikkelsen got noticed by many Americans thanks to the NBC series Hannibal. The show was produced by Brian Fuller, who has had a successful career on the small screen, being behind several well regarded shows from Pushing Daisies to Star Trek: Discovery. But now Fuller has his sights set not on a new series, but rather a movie, and he’s going to bring Mads Mikkelsen with him for a new “family” horror movie called Dust Bunny.

According to THR, Dust Bunny will tell the story of a eight-year-old girl who goes to her neighbor for help with killing the monster under her bed, the monster she believes has eaten her family. While not specified, it seems clear Mikkelsen will play the neighbor. In addition to writing the script and producing the project, Fuller is also set to direct, marking his film debut in that role. 

One the one hand, this sounds like the wildest thing that two guts that made a series about Hannibal Lecter could possibly work on together. And yet, it actually makes a lot of sense. 

The premise of Dust Bunny sounds like a purified form of Bryan Fuller’s unique style. The show’s he’s created frequently have a very quirky feel to them and sometimes combine very dark elements with very light humor. Fuller’s style, being generally geared toward television, usually stops short of getting too mature for a prime time audience, and this sounds very much like it could be something in the same vein, though certainly as a movie if it wants to go further, it can.

Mads Mikkelsen sounds like the perfect bit of casting for a movie like this. Mikkelsen frequently plays villains, and while it seems his character here will be one of the good guys, he’ll likely still be playing the “weird guy next door” that this little girl goes to for help because she probably doesn’t have many other options. Mads Mikkelsen certainly has experience in family movies, he's made Pixar films, after all. 

While Bryan Fuller has made TV movies before, Dust Bunny seems to be designed as a more traditional film release. That’s not to say it will end up on the big screen, of course. The project might end up on Netflix or some other streaming service, but will likely be produced as a theatrical film rather than a TV movie.

Bryan Fuller is especially busy right now. In addition to this new movie, Fuller is producing a new series, Crystal Lake, a prequel series for the original Friday the 13th film. That show is set to debut on NBC’s Peacock streaming service. 

While we don’t know which of these projects will get first, since Dust Bunny has a completed script and has cast a major role, this will likely be Bryan Fuller’s next project, with Crystal Lake set to be what he works on once the movie is done.  

NBC’s Hannibal was and will remain one of the most gorgeous and genre-savvy approaches to retelling a well-established horror tale, with creator Bryan Fuller and his creative team pulling out all the stops on a broadcast network scale. Now, Fuller is bringing his talents to the Friday the 13th universe for a brand new Peacock streaming series from A24, titled Crystal Lake, marking some of the best Halloween Day news (in)humanly possible that isn’t the long-desired Hannibal Season 4.

Interestingly enough — though perhaps not surprisingly for anyone who has paid attention to the Friday the 13th legal battles over the years — Crystal Lake is being described as an “expanded prequel series,” with details currently being kept under lock and key far beneath the lake’s surface. But it seems likely that fans shouldn’t expect to see the mask-wearing Jason Voorhees that has long been part of the Big Three in slasher films.

Perhaps the second most interesting member of the creative team behind Fuller would be fellow executive producer Victor Miller, the screenwriter and rights owner specifically of the elements within the first Friday film’s screenplay. If the idea that Crystal Lake is a prequel wasn’t already a big indicator, Miller isn’t publicly known to have the ability to tell any stories using the adult version of Jason, and also can’t necessarily use the well-established hockey mask that came into the series later on.

It wouldn't be impossible for such a thing to occur, but it would take some legal agreements between Miller and director Sean Cunningham to make it happen, and it seems more likely for Freddy Kreuger to show up instead. (Not really, but hyperbole is key here.) The idea of Pamela Voorhees' story being explored further, as well as other elements of the camp's history, will no doubt be part of it all. Betsy Palmer's iconic character and performance predated Jason, after all, so I definitely hope to see more of her twisted psychology on display.

All of which is to say that hardcore fans shouldn't feel as if Crystal Lake is going to be anything but great, regardless of all things Jason. A24, which has been behind some of the most acclaimed and thought-provoking genre fare in recent years, will be behind the new prequel, which matches right up with Bryan Fuller’s visually and mentally captivating fare. He’ll serve as the writer and showrunner, as well as an executive producer. So while I certainly wouldn’t go on a limb and say that anyone could do justice to a Friday the 13th prequel, Fuller is easily one of a small handful of TV creators who I’d put all my trust in with such a project. 

Fuller had some Halloween fun with the news, too, showing off a most fabulous Pamela Voorhees costume on Twitter.

In Peacock’s announcement, Fuller also shared the following statement, speaking to how he came to love the franchise. 

While waiting for more updates on what the new Crystal Lake series will bring to horror fans with Peacock subscriptions, check out where to find all the Friday the 13th movies in order for your streaming pleasures as the Halloween season turns into a more festive vibe. 

Star Trek is a franchise that prides itself on diversity, and from the beginning, it has worked to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to representation and creating a picture of an idealized society for its audience. Discovery furthered that approach when it helped established Stamets and Culber as the franchise’s first out and about same-sex couple, and the first kiss between gay characters. But co-creator Bryan Fuller is paying credit where it's due in saying that Deep Space Nine helped pave the way for LGBTQ+ representation long before. 

Bryan Fuller famously exited Star Trek: Discovery before it premiered, but helped bring the final vision to life, and also has extensive experience as a writer on both Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Fuller recently noted he’s proud that Discovery made great strides for inclusion in the franchise, but noted to IndieWire that DS9 also helped facilitate that, saying:

The news that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured characters within the LGBTQ+ community isn’t exactly shocking to anyone who watched the show. Jadzia Dax, a Trill host in the series, served as a symbiote and received her host after it was previously attached to a male, which opened the door for encounters with partners who were previously of the same sex. There’s also the Cardassian Garak, who is widely considered by many in the fandom to be gay. 

Bryan Fuller spoke about both of these characters while addressing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s contributions to LGBTQ+ representation. Fuller, who has been out for most of his career, even added that he considers Garak his favorite Trek character of all time: 

Star Trek: Discovery continues to build on the path previously laid by Deep Space Nine, and introduced the franchise’s first non-binary character Adira, as well as its first transgender character, Gray. Had Deep Space Nine not taken the swings and strides that it did decades before, who knows how long it might’ve taken such characters to be introduced?

With all this talk from Bryan Fuller about the progressiveness of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, one has to wonder if he’s not subtly rallying up fans for the series' characters to return to live-action in some way. Alex Kurtzman certainly had fans hopeful something was in the works with his recent comments about a revival, and let’s not forget there’s a comic that recently brought Avery Brooks’ Sisko out of the wormhole. It seems like there’s definitely a chance of something happening, assuming the actors are up for it. 

The recent Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover with Deep Space Nine does instill some hope of the main cast reprising their roles for upcoming Trek projects. With that said, cast members mentioned some time ago they’d have some specific demands for returning, like having former showrunner Ira Steven Behr involved. With no telling what the odds are of that happening, all we can do is continue to champion DS9’s achievements during its original run and hope for more. 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is available to stream to anyone with a Paramount+ subscription. It’s certainly worth checking out for anyone who hasn’t seen it before, and perfect for anyone who enjoys the sci-fi world's more intense and hectic storylines.

The horror genre has been a tried and true part of the film industry for years, thanks to the movies’ ability to make money on a small budget. Historically members of the LGBTQ+ community have felt a strong connection to the genre, and all of its bloody spectacle. In fact, that connection is the subject of a new documentary series titled Queer for Fear, with the filmmakers recently speaking to CinemaBlend about the queerness of Stephen King’s work, specifically Carrie.

Queer for Fear is an upcoming documentary series that comes from Shudder, which examines LGBTQ+ themes throughout horror history. This includes actual queer characters, as well as those that have managed to resonate with queer audiences over the years. As you can see in the video above, three of the filmmakers behind the doc spoke to CinemaBlend during San Diego Comic-Con, where they did a deep dive on Stephen King’s work in particular. Kimberly Peirce, who directed the 2013 Carrie remake, spoke to the queer themes running throughout that beloved story. As she put it,

Points were made. While Carrie is known as the telekinetic prom queen who murdered her clasmates after being doused with pig’s blood, there’s a deeper story happening within the White household. Carrie’s mother sees her daughter as an abomination, with the title character eventually finding her own power and sense of self throughout the novel/movies. And for many LBGTQ+ folks in the audience, that’s a story that’s all too familiar.

Of course, Kimberly Peirce is someone who knows the story of Carrie more than most of us. She had the difficult task of adapting the beloved Stephen King story for the big screen. Peirce had some big shoes to fill considering how iconic the 1976 original movie is. And in the end she found a way to bring the story into the current day, with actress Chloë Grace Moretz playing the title character.

Bryan Fuller is another one of the filmmakers behind Queer for Fear, who further explained why Carrie and other Stephen King stories often resonate with LGBTQ+ moviegoers. Namely because they so often are focused on an underdog, who has been bullied in one way or another. He explained,

Like Kimberly Peirce, Bryan Fuller is another person who knows the story of Carrie intimately: he wrote the teleplay for the 2022 made for TV adaptation of the story. While each version of Stephen King’s story were told a bit differently, they all feature a protagonist who is othered by society and tasked with praying away what makes her special. It’s no wonder that so many queer folks have felt a kinship with Carrie White.

Queer for Fear will premiere on Shudder September 29th. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

In Hollywood, every project moves at its own pace. Enough excitement and resources for an idea can get some movies through pre-production and principal photography in a matter of months, while others may take a decade to get up on their feet. You can never quite be sure which way things are going to go.

Let’s take a pair of recently announced Stephen King projects as an example. It was only back in February that Paramount+’s upcoming Pet Sematary follow-up was announced as being in development, and now production is being planned for August. Conversely, while a new remake of Christine was revealed to be in the works earlier this month, producer Jason Blum has confirmed that it’s going to be a minute before that particular project starts really gunning its engine.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Blum this week during the virtual press day for The Forever Purge, and I used part of the time during our conversation to discuss the Stephen King adaptations that Blumhouse Productions currently has in the works. He noted that Keith Thomas’ Firestarter, starring Zac Efron, is coming along nicely and has earned King’s seal of approval – but as for Christine, plans for that film are still very much in the early stages:

For those who missed the news, it was reported earlier this month that Blumhouse and Sony Pictures are collaborating on a new big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s classic killer car novel Christine, and Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) is attached to write and direct. It was said in the trades that the project will still be a period piece, but clearly there is little about the film that is presently set in stone.

The 1983 novel tells the story of Arnie Cunningham, a nerdy loser who starts to undergo massive changes when he purchases a trashed 1958 Plymouth Fury. Arnie dedicates himself to restoring the secretly evil car back to its former glory, but doing so slowly begins to corrupt him – leaving his best friend and girlfriend to try and save him before it is too late.

Christine is one of three Stephen King adaptations that Blumhouse Productions currently has in the works – the studio having previously made 2014’s Mercy (based on the short story “Gramma” from Night Shift). The aforementioned Firestarter is currently in production, and Jason Blum is also teaming up with Ryan Murphy to produce a feature version of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” from If It Bleeds for Netflix.

So, fellow Constant Readers, we’ll have to be a bit patient when it comes to the wait for Bryan Fuller’s Christine – but hopefully all that time will be well spent making sure that the movie is the best version of itself possible.

Producer Jason Blum is getting heavy into the Stephen King adaptation game. After years of development, Blumhouse Productions' upcoming remake of Firestarter has finally entered production, and is currently in principal photography up in Canada, but the company isn't just stopping there. Instead, Blum has apparently gotten his hands on another classic King tome, and now it has been announced that a remake of Christine is in the works.

News of this development comes to us from Deadline, which adds the exciting news that Bryan Fuller – best known for TV series including Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and Dead Like Me – is handling the screenplay and is attached to direct. In addition to Jason Blum, filmmaker Vincenzo Natali is also producing, having previously been involved with Stephen King projects including the 2019 feature In The Tall Grass and two episodes of the recent The Stand miniseries. Should all go according to plan, it will be the third King movie from Blumhouse, as the company first made Mercy (an adaptation of the short story "Gramma") in 2014.

Of course, what's particularly notable about this development is the fact that we have already seen a big screen version of Christine, and one made by a true Master of Horror. John Carpenter's film from 1983 is still regarded as a classic, and it's a feature that you can watch today and still wonder how the filmmakers were able to pull off some of the cinema magic. There are some key deviations that the adaptation makes from Stephen King's book – including the removal of a key antagonist, and the ways that the titular car murders people she doesn't like – so it will be interesting to see if this new effort either hones closer to the source material, or attempts to be a total reinvention of the story. The trade report does say that the story is going to stick to being set in the 1980s.

First published in the spring of 1983, Christine tells the story of a loser teenager named Arnie Cunningham who sees his life completely change when he one day discovers a junked 1958 Plymouth Fury. Instantly falling in love with the car, he dedicates himself to refurbishing it to its former glory – but the larger truth in the story is that Christine is an evil machine that is not only intensely possessive, but also a dangerous corrupting force. It becomes the responsibility of his best friend, Dennis Guilder, and his girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, to stop the sinister vehicle before it is too late.

Right now this remake of Christine is very much in the earliest stages, but there's no denying that it's an exciting development given all of the talent involved. Given our anticipation, you can be sure that we'll have more updates for you as they continue to pop up. In the meantime, to check our all of the King adaptations that are currently in the works, be sure to check out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies And TV guide.

Of all the TV shows that got cancelled too soon in the past decade or so, few were as masterfully crafted as NBC's Hannibal. The horror series was extremely dark for a broadcast network, serving up delectable set design and gore, with pitch-perfect performances from everyone in the cast. Unfortunately, every prior attempt to bring Season 4 to life left creator Bryan Fuller and other producers empty-handed. But could that success rate change now that Hannibal has seen streaming success on Netflix?

Bryan Fuller doesn't exactly sound like he's bursting with optimism about Hannibal's chances of returning for Season 4, but it also doesn't sound like he's anxious to give up hope on making it happen now that it's clear how popular it got after hitting Netflix. Here's how he put it to Collider:

Somebody renew Hannibal for Season 4 so Bryan Fuller can stop waving his legs out the window! Granted, he's not actually doing that, but his point is well-taken. If Netflix (or anyone else for that matter) wants to step up and give the cannibal-headed series a shot at making new episodes, Fuller is willing and able with no questions asked. And we know Mads Mikkelsen is, too, considering he was also getting fans pumped about more potential seasons.

Considering Netflix's reputation for both taking advantage of successful series and for reviving shows that were cancelled elsewhere, it's almost bothersome that no one has reached out to Bryan Fuller to at least gently touch base about what could happen in the future. Granted, I'm sure Hannibal is an expensive show, and that it would take much effort to bring the entire cast back. And that's not even considering how Bryan Fuller and the creative team would need to dance around Clarice Starling and Silence of the Lambs storyline, since that book and its characters have a completely different copyright situation than Thomas Harris' other Hannibal Lecter works.

At the very least, Bryan Fuller has spoken with various cast members about what the plan would be if Hannibal ever does come back for Season 4 or something more feature-length. In his words:

For those unaware, Martha De Laurentiis currently controls the rights to Hannibal Lecter, the character, while the TV show Hannibal's rights are owned by the company Gaumont International Television. So in a perfect world, Netflix would be reaching out to Gaumont to get them on board with producing one or more new seasons, and then Bryan Fuller and De Laurentiis would get the call that all systems are go for bringing back Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal, Hugh Dancy's Will Graham, and more to tell a disturbing new chapter in the characters' lives. With Netflix's budgets and the lack of broadcast ratings to worry about, Hannibal could indeed thrive in the world of streaming. But someone just has to bite down on the idea first.

Keep your fingers crossed, Fannibals, for the potential future announcement that Netflix has renewed Hannibal for Season 4. Until then, you can catch Seasons 1-3 streaming now on Netflix. Those in need of future series to obsess over can check out our Netflix 2020 schedule and our Fall 2020 TV premiere guide.

Netflix recently announced that it will soon be the streaming home for the highly acclaimed TV horror series Hannibal, which sparked a renewed bloodlust amongst those who have been missing the series since its untimely cancellation on NBC back in 2015. Fans are all too familiar with the "Netflix bump" that helps rocket certain TV shows to the top of the pop culture zeitgeist, meaning conversations about Hannibal's potential future may soon start all over again. And star Mads Mikkelsen is already trying to make those talks happen.

Taking to social media after Netflix unveiled its programming through the month of June, Mads Mikkelsen stoked the flames of the Hannibal fandom with the perfect post.

Clearly it will take more to bring Hannibal Season 4 into reality than just support from the actor who played the titular killer, but there's absolutely no one better to lead the charge. After all, who's going to harshly deny the wants and needs of a Michelin star-worthy cannibal?

While holding one of the Hannibal masks-on-a-stick that were oft used by the emphatic Fannibals fanbase, Mads Mikkelsen is once again tapping into a river of desires that might not be able to close up again once it starts flowing in full. Hannibal fans clamored as loudly as could be for any other TV network or streaming service to step up and renew the Bryan Fuller-created series for its already planned fourth season, only to receive radio silence as a response.

Netflix was indeed one that Fuller & Co. reached out to after the cancellation (which was blamed on piracy), but the company decided to pass on the offer. That said, it's been five years, and both the streaming service and all of Hannibal's key players have changed a lot since then. Netflix now has literally hundreds more original TV projects, and it's upped its horror game over the years, so Hannibal could make for an excellent acquirement if the show gets a new influx of viewers.

While Hannibal has been available for streaming on Hulu for a while now, that service's impact on a show's popularity pales in comparison to how series fare once they hit Netflix. Shows like Friends and The Office are quite familiar with such popularity surges, and more recently, the NBC sitcom Community gained a ton of new fans from the Netflix bump. To the point where conversations are reportedly being had with Netflix about closing out Community #SixSeasonsAndAMovie promise. (Is it a good sign that all of these shows are from NBC? Also, how was this show ever considered safe enough for network TV?)

Now, Hannibal fans have been led down some hopeful avenues in the past, with rumors of a theatrical movie even coming out at one point. But Bryan Fuller and Mads Mikkelsen in particular have kept hope alive over the years, both implying they'd be down to return to the franchise if things worked out in one way or another. The existence of CBS' upcoming Silence of the Lambs offshoot Clarice certainly throws a wrench into the works of Mikkelsen's cannibal ever meeting the iconic FBI agent Clarice Starling, but there are certainly other places to take the villain's story if need be. And yes, it needs to be.

All three glorious seasons of Hannibal will be available to binge on Netflix starting on Friday, June 5, at 12:01 a.m. PT. Tell your friends, and your friends' friends, and their friends, and so on.

Some of the biggest recent TV trends include classic sitcom revivals and true crime projects, but one of the more unexpected super-specific trends can be boiled down to "shows that have lost Bryan Fuller as a showrunner and/or executive producer." The latest case just went down at Apple, where Fuller has dropped out of the upcoming Amazing Stories anthology series reboot. Following Fuller's exit, Bones creator Hart Hanson also exited his role as Amazing Stories' executive producer. It's suddenly a not-so-amazing situation.

Amazing Stories first went into development at NBC over two years ago, with Bryan Fuller set to handle showrunner duties, and it later moved to Apple with Steven Spielberg signing on, which is when Hart Hanson was brought in to help steer the ship. According to THR, Fuller's voluntary exit was an amicable one, with creative differences cited as the reasoning. It's reported that Fuller had a darker and more Black Mirror-esque trajectory for Amazing Stories, while Apple's sights were on something far different. Which isn't so surprising, since previous reports claimed that Apple was looking to keep its original programming on the more family-friendly side of the content spectrum, and we all know Bryan Fuller likes to get a little more extreme at times.

Hart Hanson's Amazing Stories exit was announced not long after Bryan Fuller's, and according to Deadline, this was similarly due to a creative rift with Apple and Amblin. So the situations are apparently quite comparable, and it would appear that Hanson and Fuller shared ideas about what Amazing Stories should be for 2018 audiences and beyond. At this point, it's reported that Apple and Amblin are on the search for a replacement showrunner, so let's hope everyone puts their creative ideals right up front here to keep future exoduses from happening.

As Bryan Fuller fans are well aware, the past few years have been quite hectic for the celebrated storyteller. Following Hannibal's cancellation, Fuller went into development on both Starz's American Gods and CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery, though he ended up stepping down from the latter for various scheduling issues and more. After a successful first season of American Gods, Fuller and co-creator Michael Green vacated the show in the middle of writing Season 2, with budget concerns and storyline disputes reportedly the cause. Then, Fuller's Amazing Stories absence was partially foreshadowed when he signed on to help develop the in-the-works TV series based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles novels. At the time of this writing, he's still involved with that.

While Amazing Stories might be facing some delays, Apple is chugging along with its growing lineup of other original programming projects. Not only will Apple be the place to find Jennifer Aniston's return to TV alongside Reese Witherspoon, but subscribers will also find Ron Moore's new sci-fi project, Kristen Wiig's new comedy and Stephen S. DeKnight's new drama.

Now without two of its biggest creative minds, Apple's Amazing Stories still has a ways to go before getting to a point where we can watch it. In the meantime, though, you can check out our midseason premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows hitting the small screen soon.

One of the most highly-anticipated new series of 2017 had to be American Gods on Starz, and the first season was complex and creative in the best way. The show was renewed for a second season after only two episodes had aired in what was a huge show of faith from Starz, and showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were expected to remain on board. Now, however, we know that a big change is happening behind the scenes, and all because of Fuller and Green. They have left American Gods as showrunners.

Bryan Fuller and Michael Green announced their departure to the American Gods cast on November 29, according to Deadline. There has been no official statement about why the duo is departing. A fair amount of progress has already been made on Season 2. More than half of the scripts for the ten-episode second season have already been written. The show is reportedly searching for a new showrunner. Neil Gaiman -- a.k.a. the author of the book that inspired the TV series -- may join the series in a more active role as a co-showrunner although he is currently working on an adaptation of Good Omens for Amazon. Gaiman already contributes to the series as an executive producer.

Both Bryan Fuller and Michael Green have other projects in development, so the two men won't exactly be out of work now that they've left American Gods. Bryan Fuller is working on an Amazing Stories reboot for Apple, and he previously put a good deal of work into Star Trek Discovery as creator/showrunner/executive producer, although he left that project while the first season was being developed. As for Michael Green, he is writing the sequel to the recent Murder on the Orient Express film.

American Gods was originally slated to return to Starz at some point in mid-2018. There's a chance that the premiere will be pushed back if the search for a new showrunner takes a while, but we'll have to wait and see. For what you'll be able to watch sooner rather than later, swing by our fall TV guide and our 2018 midseason TV premiere guide. Our 2017 breakdown of cancellations can fill you in on all the series that have gotten the axe over the past year. Be sure to stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news.

When it came to Star Trek: Discovery, Bryan Fuller was attempting to boldly go where no showrunner had ever gone before with the Star Trek franchise. Co-showrunner Aaron Harberts discusses what the series could've been like, had Fuller stayed.

As IGN notes, CBS at the time of hearing the pitch didn't reject the idea, but instead suggested Bryan Fuller start with the single serialized show concept for Star Trek: Discovery and go from there. Fuller agreed to the compromise, but as those who have been following the situation know, ultimately ended up being dropped from the series. Fuller's idea of an anthology series set within the Star Trek universe is very interesting, although it sounds as though it would be a challenge to make without breaking the bank.

For example, Fuller's original plan was to begin with Star Trek: Discovery and then jump ahead to tell another story after its conclusion. Given how long the Star Trek timeline stretches, this could mean recastings, new sets, and essentially starting over from scratch on a show that requires a lot of costume work and alien design. While definitely a cool concept that surely many Star Trek fans would get behind, as a whole the project sounds like a huge undertaking when compared to just sticking with the original concept the series started with.

That said, it's not as though CBS completely rejected the idea, so there must have been something there that made it feasible enough for executives to table the pitch for a later discussion. Unfortunately, with Fuller exiting Star Trek: Discovery and Aaron Harberts saying that as of now the show is planned to be a "single-serialized series", that could be the end of the line for the anthology idea. Who knows though, it's always possible CBS could be playing their cards close to the chest and still have that concept in mind if Star Trek: Discovery's story doesn't connect with fans or if they just want to shake things up.

Star Trek: Discovery is set to premiere September 24th on CBS and CBS All Access. For more on the show, be sure to read up on how Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham will be different than other first officers, or why the series decided to go with a serialized story over episodic. For a look at all the new shows that will be premiering or returning in the next couple of months, be sure to visit our fall premiere guide.

Set the dinner table with the finest plates and silverware, and build up an appetite, as one of television's most delectable dramas is in the early days of making its small screen comeback. Hannibal, Bryan Fuller's highly acclaimed take on Thomas Harris' highbrow cannibal, is legitimately at the center of conversations that could lead to the existence of Season 4, and before so many years have passed that we forgot how Season 3 ended. (Strictly hyperbole, as that would never happen.) Fuller made the news public himself on social media.

I know it's mixing pop culture references to say that Bryan Fuller's subdued Hannibal announcement is worth toasting with a big glass of chianti, but maybe there's just an abundance of chianti somewhere. In any case, it hasn't been a secret that Fuller and other members of the creative team -- as well as the central cast -- are interested in more, but the issues with taking Hannibal into Season 4 haven't ever been about a lack of interest from those involved (besides the people that ended it in the first place, obviously). It's been about some legal issues, as it usually goes. So if conversations are happening, things must be falling into place.

Here in August 2017, it appears rights to Hannibal have reverted back to Martha de Laurentiis, as hinted at above in the "two years after the finale" comment. (Or if they haven't, that switch is imminent enough to inspire confidence.) It's been a tad unclear, however, which rights are coming back, as it's assumed that Amazon's exclusive streaming rights to Hannibal's first three seasons will be expiring at some point this year -- those rights were essentially the reason Netflix didn't go further with conversations about a new season -- and it's also likely that the production company Gaumont will also be losing its rights to Hannibal in the near future. If both of those situations are simultaneously happening, that would be the best thing for everyone.

Why? Because then Netflix could get involved and give the show the budget that Gaumont couldn't. As well, Gaumont's involvement meant that MGM wasn't a part of it, and while The De Laurentiis Company already has the rights to characters that originated in the novel Red Dragon, MGM still owns the rights to all things introduced in Silence of the Lambs. Which is why Hannibal wasn't ever technically able to bring in Clarice Starling, as many fans were hoping for.

Some years back, MGM was all about bringing a Silence of the Lambs project to TV in some form, so hopefully that interest is still sizable enough to fill a giant hole in the ground in the middle of a crazy killer's house. Even if whatever new project is only a miniseries, we're down, because we need to know what happened!

Of course, there's no guarantee that any conversations from this will result in a fourth season of Hannibal, and one has to wonder how it would come together anyway, since Bryan Fuller is already busy with American Gods. And as last year showed us when Fuller stepped down as showrunner for Star Trek: Discovery, having too much on his plate doesn't allow Fuller to put as much attention on what needs it the most. Is it possible for him to choose between American Gods and Hannibal? Let's hope it doesn't come down to that.

Stay tuned, Fannibals, as we might get some more from this fantastic show yet, and while we didn't get into the difficulties of getting stars like Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy back, we're keeping the faith. (We're also hoping that people actually watch this year, instead of pirating.) Everyone can be faithful that there's a lot of good TV on the way later this year, too, as can be found in our summer TV schedule and our fall premiere schedule.

NBC had a show unlike anything else on broadcast TV with Hannibal, and the three seasons of the series went in some astonishingly dark and twisty directions. Unfortunately for fans, the ratings were never particularly impressive, and NBC finally pulled the plug back in 2015. There has been talk over the past couple of years about a revival, but we haven't had much to go on. Now, showrunner Bryan Fuller has some promising words about a possible Season 4, saying this:

Bryan Fuller has evidently been discussing a fourth season with fellow former executive producer Martha De Laurentiis, who also produced the Hannibal Lector-centric films Hannibal and Red Dragon. Given that we're only a matter of months away fro De Laurentiis regaining the rights to the series, Season 4 has never felt so possible. Fuller's comments on the Post Mortem podcast indicate that he and De Laurentiis would need to work with the Gaumont Television production company if they wanted to use the same characters as they used in the show, but he doesn't seem to believe that would be a problem.

Luckily, Bryan Fuller seems to be pretty sure that stars Mads Mikkelson and Hugh Dancy would be on board to reprise their respective roles as Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. The two spent three seasons crafting an uncomfortably compelling dynamic, and a Season 4 without both of them couldn't possibly work as well. Fuller went on to reveal part of why the cancellation after Season 3 was so difficult:

All things considered, a Season 4 of Hannibal sounds like a real possibility. The production team has had to wait two years after the last airing of the show to explore options for another batch of episodes. The streaming rights for Hannibal at the time of its cancellation belonged to Amazon, and a deal for a fourth season at Amazon simply couldn't be worked out.

The end result was that other streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu couldn't step in and save the series as the rights were still held by Amazon. With those rights reverting by September, the Hannibal team may need to simply find a new home and work out the schedules of everybody involved. While we shouldn't start planning the menus for our viewing parties just yet, a Season 4 could actually happen relatively soon, and hopefully without piracy.

That said, both Mads Mikkelson and Hugh Dancy have kept busy in the past few years. Mikkelson has had key roles on the big screen with Doctor Strange and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Dancy headed to Hulu for The Path. For his part, Bryan Fuller has been hard at work on Starz' American Gods. We'll have to wait and see if and when filming could possibly commence. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well.

The Alien franchise resurged in a major way this weekend, with Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant chest bursting into theaters. And while the numbers at the box office may have been a bit disappointing, hardcore fans of the franchise are no doubt pleased to see a Xenomorph on the silver screen terrorizing a group of space explorers. Covenant was also met with mixed critical reception, and now Hannibal and Star Trek: Discovery producer/writer Bryan Fuller has revealed why he's taken umbrage to the recent sequel: the characters' stupidity.

Bryan Fuller recently spoke to Vulture about Alien: Covenant, where he revealed his problem(s) with the film. Regarding the characters' poor choices that result in them being killed, Fuller said:

Well, if that's not a backhanded compliment I don't know what is. While Bryan Fuller praised visual aspects of Alien: Covenant and Prometheus, he wasn't pleased with how the characters were constantly getting themselves killed through pure stupidity.

To accurately speak to his point, we're going to be moving into spoiler territory here, so if you haven't seen Covenant, you may want to put a pin in this story for later.

I have to say, I'm inclined to agree with Bryan Fuller about Alien: Covenant. While the large ensemble of actors gave great performances (particularly a refreshingly earnest Danny McBride), these guys just couldn't stop getting themselves killed. And it did feel Friday the 13th-ish in a way, except the team of Covenant were all highly skilled adults instead of horny camp counselors.

The first way we see this is after the shit has hit the fan, and the surviving group of colonizers are hiding in David's little temple. Female crew member Rosenthal decide she wants to "clean up", and she separates from the group to wash her face in a pool of water. Because despite being in danger and needing rescue, she just couldn't deal with a dirty face. This results in her being promptly decapitated by a Neomorph.

And even more infuriating is the love scene featuring Empire's always delightful Jussie Smollett. Well into the third act of Covenant, we see Smollett's character and his wife attempt to lighten the mood with some good old fashioned shower sex. They've been out of stasis for around a day, and just can't wait. So rather than mourning their many fallen comrades, they decide to get things wet and wild on the ship. I bet you can guess how that ends.

Bryan Fuller also had an issue with Covenant's chest burster, particularly how lethal and effective it is upon its birth. He said,

Alien: Covenant is currently in theaters now, and you can watch Bryan Fuller's American Gods on Starz.

Major spoilers below for American Gods' latest episode.

Even with Neil Gaiman's novel as a blueprint, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green's adaptation of American Gods is about as unpredictable as TV gets, and fans who tuned into "Git Gone" expecting more old-timey prejudice from Mr. Wednesday and further wisdom from the Zoryas were treated to an installment focused entirely on Emily Browning's Laura Moon. While supernatural things definitely happened, it was a more human episode than others, though one of its inspirations was anything but. Speaking with CinemaBlend about the episode, Fuller revealed to me how the classic horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London was an inspiration for Laura's return.

Perfecto point of reference, right? I mean, few second banana characters in horror's history are as memorable in a visuall and tonal sense than Griffin Dunne's Jack Goodman. John Landis' An American Werewolf in London is revered by fans and critics in two big ways. First is the legendary Rick Baker's makeup work, itself a basis for the Oscars introducing a Makeup category, and though David's big werewolf transformation is often cited the most, Jack's increasingly disgusting mug was the gift that kept on giving. The second reason is the winning balance between legitimate genre scares and the macabre EC Comics-ish humor, showcased perfectly in Dunne's scenes. Laura's official American Gods introduction dealt with both gross-out gags and gory visuals in an equally excellent manner, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

After learning why they expanded Laura's story from the book to the Starz series, I had to ask Bryan Fuller and Michael Green about the amazingness that was "blood-stained Emily Browning walking about with only one arm attached," but I'll admit good ol' Jack Goodman didn't cross my mind at all while watching. Not much did, really, because I was either trying to wrap my head around the slo-mo bloodbath at Shadow's attempted hanging, or I was laughing hysterically at Betty Gilpin's shriek-filled reaction to her resurrected best friend.

That particular sequence, which mostly took place inside Audrey's bathroom, was easily the funniest scene that American Gods has given fans thus far. (At least in my opinion.) And in true Laura-fashion, Emily Browning rolled with the punches with an emotionally pragmatic distance, with the character not immediately grasping why Audrey is reacting quite so harshly to the grave-fresh return of the person responsible for simultaneously killing her husband and outing him as an adulterer, all while the former corpse is having a toilet purge for the ages. This is just the kind of absurdity that happens in the best horror-comedies, and while it's not exactly what we expected from American Gods in the middle of its freshman season, we welcome anything and everything Fuller and Green are bringing to Czernobog's table. And we're pretty sure Jack Goodman would approve.

While An American Werewolf in Paris was a forgettable follow-up to the London original, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green should be the pair that brings the American Werewolf flicks back to the horror forefront, right? After howling at the moon and checking out more American Gods stories that the co-creators shared with us, get ready for more all-new episodes every Sunday night on Starz at 9:00 p.m. ET. Then head to our summer TV premiere schedule to see what other fantastic shows are hitting the small screen soon.

Spoiler alert for American Gods fans who haven't yet watched the episode "Git Gone."

When Starz's exceptional American Gods brought Episode 3 to a close last week, viewers stared incredulously at Emily Browning's Laura Moon inexplicably standing inside Shadow's hotel room, despite the fact that her death was the reason for Shadow's early release. And tonight's "Git Gone" was a brilliant narrative detour that completely changed up and expanded Laura's story from Neil Gaiman's novel. CinemaBlend spoke with co-creators Bryan Fuller and Michael Green about the episode, and here's what Green told me about why those big changes were made with Laura from page to screen.

To be clear, Laura Moon is definitely an important character within the American Gods novel. Both versions feature Laura dying while giving oral sex to a vehicle-driving Robbie -- although only one of them specifically has Dane Cook singing The Band's "The Weight" -- and both versions bring the ennui-filled Laura back from the dead. But the comparisons mostly end there, and we're apparently going to see Laura take on a more central and non-sporadic role within this epic story as it moves forward in the back half of this season, in Season 2, and hopefully beyond.

Everything that Bryan Fuller and Michael Green did with Laura's expanded role worked perfectly in "Git Gone," from the clinical way she viewed her casino job to how her affair with Robbie was largely fueled by a combination of his sexual interest in her and her innate need to fuck with normalcy, rather than any strong emotional desires of her own. She pushes Shadow into attempting the casino (not bank) robbery, which gets him imprisoned, and she was the reason he survived that vicious lynch mob. She is basically Shadow's savior, and the one God-like being in this story that he would likely always side with no matter what. Okay, so that's also similar to the novel, but we're pretty sure there wasn't a scene that looked like it came straight out of Sucker Punch in the source material.

Shadow, who is probably thankful that he wasn't around for that moment when Laura was shitting out all the embalming fluid in her body, didn't get his story expanded too much here, beyond further showing himself to be the vaguely innocent other-wheel in Living Laura's life. But now that Laura has passed through Mr. Jacquel's afterlife and funeral home, she now realizes the full capacity of her love for Shadow, and it will play a large part in dictating the whens and hows of her eventual flypaper-filled trip to afterlife, or lack thereof.

Thankfully, American Gods nailed it with the casting for Laura, as Emily Browning's eyes can instantaneously turn from cold and disaffected to warm and puppy-esque, which is definitely needed for this role. And Michael Green also told me the actress herself influenced how big he and Bryan Fuller wanted to make Laura's role for the Starz series.

Whether she's just about to bite a dong off or punching people's heads clear off of their bodies, Emily Browning is indeed as exquisite a casting choice as everyone else has been on this series so far. With lots more gallows humor and death-affronting bravado to come from the actress, American Gods airs Sunday nights on Starz at 9 p.m. ET. Check out another interesting story Bryan Fuller and Michael Green told us, and then if you're looking for more awesome TV, unlike Robbie, that's coming soon, head to our summer TV schedule.

Some rather NSFW spoilers are below for anyone who hasn't yet watched the third episode of American Gods.

The first two episodes of Starz's sensational American Gods introduced viewers to an array of enchanting, majestic and inscrutable characters and situations, and "Head Full of Snow" offered another extremely memorable book-to-TV transition that encapsulated all three of those adjectives. For tonight, viewers got to witness the eventually super-erotic meet-up between the once-optimistic Muslim immigrant Salim and the exhausted taxi driver soon revealed to be a Jinn. Co-creators Bryan Fuller and Michael Green spoke with CinemaBlend recently about the show, and here's what Fuller told me about bringing that sexual encounter to life.

I did ask about the sex scene, which was strangely tender for involving someone being on metaphysical fire the whole time, but I don't know that I expected the answer to end on something as glorious as "crazy images of orgasm." In any case, Salim's entire scene is one of the most interesting, relevant and beautifully-directed sequences we've seen on American Gods thus far, and it's depicted quite faithfully. The gratification-delivering hotel room tryst was, of course, taken to the place where readers' imaginations had to go when reading Neil Gaiman's novel, but it kept strong this show's willingness to deliver moments that you can't find anywhere else on the small screen.

Obviously there's a layman's way of depicting an orgasm, and a lot of the visuals for those versions just wouldn't fly even on premium cable. (Perhaps "fly" is the wrong word to use.) American Gods has already established outer planes of reality that co-exist with our own, thankfully, so that was indeed the best way to convey the almighty orgasm in this particular case: through the sand-swept core of the Jinn passing on his flames of legend to a stripped-down Salim. It was both lovely and frightening at the same time. As otherworldly sex should be. (And in a completely different way from all things Bilquis.)

Those existence-altering bedroom shenanigans were gloriously mystifying both in and out of context, but that wasn't the only important element in this metaphorical narrative microcosm. Without getting political, Salim entering the U.S. as a gay Muslim wasn't the most surefire recipe for instant success, and his inability to get his desired business meeting was a blow to his confidence. So perhaps that was the perfect time for him to enter the cab of a Middle Eastern mythological fire-being who could change Salim's life forever, starting with a meaningful conversation (that touched upon wet shit). As stated during my talk with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, part of Salim's change takes him to the next level of his sexuality and his post-humanity. And then part of it was the Jinn granting him the job status of being a taxi driver, which means. no filling out applications. But he doesn't grant wishes.

In a nutshell, Salim's story was kind of like a Disney movie, in the very specific way of a character having hardships and then finding happiness, and not about fire orgasms. It'll be extremely disappointing if we don't get to see Omid Abtahi returning to the series in an expansion of Salim's time in the novel. Especially since Bryan Fuller and Michael Green have a multi-season plan set for American Gods, which is on its way to making that plan a reality with FX's recent renewal for Season 2.

Next week's episode of American Gods will blow your minds even more, and we'll have more to say about the show after it airs on Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. ET on Starz. Check out what else we learned from Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, and to see when other shows that are nothing like American Gods will debut and return, head to our summer TV premiere schedule.

As fans of author Neil Gaiman know, it's almost impossible to fit his many works into specific genres, with most falling under the catch-all of "Imaginative fiction." Though it has been done, successful adaptations of his stories are exceedingly hard to pull off, and Starz was looking danger right in the eye when the network ordered up American Gods to series. Thankfully, and perhaps a little miraculously, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green's incredibly gorgeous American Gods is a profound and magical experience that is unlike anything else in TV history. This is storytelling at its most affecting.

There are many avenues by which to enter American Gods, and the series itself kicks off with a prologue of sorts, explaining the hidden history and mythology of pre-America as if Zack Snyder were directing an episode of Vikings. (Which I mean in the best possible way, sincerely.) Skip forward to the present, where viewers are introduced to the exquisitely named protagonist Shadow Moon, as played by The 100 vet Ricky Whittle, whose brood-heavy performance is fitting here. Days before his planned release from prison, Shadow gets out early over the tragic death of his wife Laura (Emily Browning). The fact that she died alongside her lover, who also happened to be her husband's best friend, certainly doesn't help Shadow properly deal with his readjustments back to outside life.

Not that Shadow's outside life can possibly resemble the one he knew before heading to jail. Everything changes with he meets Ian McShane's shrewd manipulator whose ad-libbed name, Mr. Wednesday, is merely a cover for his true identity as the Old God of knowledge, Odin. A being whose beguiling approach is often balanced by his archaic social etiquette, Mr. Wednesday has a daunting mission ahead of him that aims to bring a resurgence of attention back to his fellow Old Gods by waging a ware against the New Gods. To do this, he enlists Shadow as his bodyguard and driver to take him around the country in an attempt to round up as many of the powerful beings as he can.

In Mr. Wednesday's corner, at least somewhat, we have the chain-smoking god of darkness Czernobog, played with world-weary disdain by a filth-ridden Peter Stormare. There are the once-respected Zorya Sisters: the outspoken cosmos-watching guide Zorya Vechernyaya, played by Cloris Leachman; the quieter seeker of doom Zorya Utrennyaya, played by Martha Kelly; and the youngest and possibly least prophetic sister Zorya Polunochnaya, played by Erika Kaar. Orange is the New Black's Pablo Schreiber is excellent as the seemingly invincible drunkard Mad Sweeney, who always gets the short end of the stick. We're also introduced to the storytelling trickster god Mr. Nancy (or Anansi), brought to life with devilish glee by Orlando Jones. Not last and not least, we have Bilquis, the goddess of love who wishes to once again become a target of worship in others, and she has a particularly wicked way of making that happen.

Team New Gods is led by Crispin Glover's all-knowing and egotistical Mr. World, at least to the point where all of these cocky bastards can be led by someone. Perhaps the most interesting in the pack is Gillian Anderson's persuasion-minded goddess Media, who is able to take on different and interesting forms in order to sway people, and her introduction will be a hoot for fans of golden age television. Technical Boy, played with nerve-crushing aplomb by Bruce Langley, works as a stand-in for the Internet's most petulant side, and his bitchy need for attention and power doesn't make him an easily conquerable adversary.

All of those characters, and we barely touched upon Emily Browning's Laura, who doesn't get to enter the spotlight for a few episodes. But when she does, Browning gives an all-too-realistic portrayal of a woman unable to attain happiness through mediocrity. And then there's Chris Obi's haunting god of the dead Anubis, Mousa Kraish's fire-eyed Jinn, Omid Abtahi's discontented immigrant Salim, Demore Barnes' story keeper Mr. Ibis, and somehow many more surprises. What's more, because Bryan Fuller likes to appeal to as many of his fans' senses as possible, the sound design team used just about everything under the sun to craft a slew of different sound cues and themes for many of the aforementioned characters. It adds a nice layer of distinction, even if one isn't immediately aware of why it's happening.

Given its abundance of fantastical elements and dense population of characters, American Gods required a mountainous effort to bring its expansive narrative to episodic form. Which is where the superstar creative team of Bryan Fuller and Michael Green come into it, along with the plethora of talented artists putting their all into everything we're seeing and hearing. Fuller is famous for whimsical series with superior storytelling and memorable characters, such as Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and Hannibal, and American Gods works as a spectacular amalgam of everything he's worked on in the past. Meanwhile, Michael Green's career flourished on shows such as Smallville and Heroes -- where he and Fuller met -- before partly branching out to fanbase-friendly features like Green Lantern and Logan, as well as Alien: Covenant. He's clearly familiar with putting complex mythologies into script form.

In less capable hands, American Gods could have been a complete mess, and it might still have been had it gotten made even a decade ago. Like Hannibal, American Gods is rife with symbolism, with its central war of natives vs. new arrivals only vaguely masking the actual history of this great nation of ours, and as any recent headline with the word "immigrant" lets us know, that war hasn't ended on an idealogical level. And considering how tethered we are to the Internet and TV, antagonists like Technical Boy and Media only get more relevant with each passing year.

But even beyond the themes and subtext, the utter magnificence of American Gods' constantly changing visual aesthetic needed the most powerful technology possible, requiring its now-ness. With the help of talented directors like David Slade, Craig Zobel, Vincenzo Natali and more, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green exceed expectations in making Neil Gaiman's novel an eye-popping (sur)reality. From trippy dream sequences to brutal and bloody fights to otherworldly creatures to comedian Dane Cook's presence as the aforementioned best friend Robbie, American Gods never fails to deliver something to watch, something to marvel at, something to find meaning in. And for fans of the novel wondering if Bilquis' infamous manner of "feeding" on her worshippers is intact, it certainly is, and it's super fucking weird.

On that note, I'll make a brief but probably necessary concession that American Gods is going to be too weird for some people. And considering its high-impact serialization doesn't reach out to hold confused viewers' hands, even the ones who desperately want to understand, there are definitely going to be some who can't keep up or plain don't care to. The unencumbered nudity and bloodshed will piss off the usual suspects, and it definitely won't sit well with anyone who wants TV to evolve .

As a huge fan of just about everything Neil Gaiman and Bryan Fuller have been a part of, I was basically tailor-made to love Starz's American Gods with every stitch of my Made in the U.S.A. skin. However, I've had pre-presumed love for plenty of TV shows and movies that failed to measure up to any form of scrutiny. No god of guarantees exists that could have ascertained American Gods' greatness, so it came down to the work of a lot of dedicated men and women from all different backgrounds to amaze us. (America!) And by the light of Ian McShane's hair, American Gods not only takes Starz to new heights with its original programming, but it sets a new bar for what television is capable of providing. Neil Gaiman hopefully couldn't be more proud.

American Gods makes its mind-altering debut on Starz on Sunday, April 30, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is heading to the small screen in the near future, head to our midseason TV schedule and our summer premiere guide.

NBC debuted a show unlike anything else on network television in 2013 with the psychological horror series Hannibal. It was an origin story of sorts for Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who many knew as the surprisingly classy cannibal from Silence of the Lambs. Mads Mikkelsen made the role of Hannibal his own, and the cast, rounded out by Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, and Gillian Anderson, delivered delightfully creepy performances on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, the show got the ax from NBC in 2015, but showrunner Bryan Fuller has an idea for how Hannibal could come back to the small screen, saying this:

Any kind of renewal would be welcome news for fans, especially considering how the third season ended. Bryan Fuller and Co. didn't actually know that Hannibal would be cancelled until the last episode of Season 3 was already finished, and viewers were left with a huge cliffhanger that put the lives of both protagonists in jeopardy. Fuller's pitch on the Shock Waves podcast for an occasional miniseries could be a great way to continue the series without requiring commitments for an ongoing show. Who knows? Maybe Hannibal could be the next Sherlock and come back with a new batch of episodes every few years. If Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman could find the time for Sherlock, we can cross our fingers and hope that Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy could find the time for more Hannibal.

Bryan Fuller actually had hopes to bring Hannibal back to resolve the cliffhanger shortly after the cancellation from NBC. He shopped the show around to other networks and platforms, but to no avail. Although the producers evidently came close to a deal with Amazon, they didn't believe that they could produce a Season 4 in the timeframe that Amazon wanted. It's possible that the miniseries format could have more appeal to networks and/or streaming platforms.

That said, we'll have a while to wait before we even stand a chance of more episodes of Hannibal. Bryan Fuller has come out and revealed that the rights to the characters will only become available after two years have passed following the series finale on NBC. The show ended in August 2015; the soonest that Fuller and Co. could begin work to revive Hannibal is August 2017.

Still, there is a great deal of potential for another batch of Hannibal episodes. Bryan Fuller and the team actually had a plan in place for Season 4, so a continuation might be as simple as finding a network and getting the actors back on board. The story may be the easiest part of the whole affair.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule.

Star Trek fans have had an exciting year as more and more details have leaked about the new series. One of the most promising aspects of the new production was the fact that Bryan Fuller of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies was tackling showrunner duties. Unfortunately, for those of us who were counting on him being at the helm, he stepped down from the top job back in October. Now, we know that his involvement in the project is absolutely minimal. Fuller said this about his departure from Star Trek: Discovery:

Bryan Fuller's reveal that he's no longer involved in production comes as a big disappointment after earlier reports indicated that he'd still be on board with Star Trek: Discovery, just with a smaller and less hands-on role. Now we know that he won't be an active executive producer or contribute creatively for at least the first season. He'll still get an executive producer credit, and his influence will still be felt in the new series as he is the person responsible for crafting the arc for the 13-episode first season. Fuller even wrote the first two episodes. He just won't contribute to anything that hasn't already been finished.

The former showrunner went on in his chat with Newsweek to explain just why he stepped all the way down from contributing to Star Trek: Discovery, saying this:

Evidently, there's a little bit of a silver lining to the bad news about Bryan Fuller leaving Star Trek: Discovery. His admission that he couldn't put all his focus on both the American Gods adaptation he's working on for Starz and the Star Trek series for CBS could mean that both projects will be better with a showrunning team that is 100% dedicated. Former Star Trek: Discovery executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have taken over the job of showrunner from Fuller, and we have to hope that they're up to the task.

Star Trek: Discovery is currently due to debut in May 2017 on CBS All Access. Check out our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch the pass the time until then.

Of all the familiar pop culture mainstays currently getting reworked for TV, few are worth the kind of balls-out excitement as the new frontiers of Star Trek: Discovery heading to CBS All Access next year. One of the new series' most laudable elements was Hannibal and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller in the captain's chair, but unfortunately, Fuller has lost his duties as showrunner on Star Trek: Discovery, and he's already been replaced.

Star Trek: Discovery isn't losing Bryan Fuller completely, which would have been cause for clinical depression, and he'll still be on-hand as an executive producer to help flesh out the story and other creative tasks. But that isn't to say that everyone involved was all smiles, as Variety reports CBS execs haven't been thrilled with the staggered state of development on the new Star Trek series, which can be blamed on Fuller having his hands full with his upcoming Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, as well as preliminary work being done on the Amazing Stories reboot.

So a new deal and schedule was quickly worked out over the past week to allow him to still work on everything he's tied to, but without having to worry about every single day-to-day issue ingrained in big-budgeted sci-fi projects. Instead, showrunner duties have been shifted over to executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who should be firmly in place once filming for Star Trek: Discovery finally begins next month after recent delays. (Writer/director Akiva Goldsman is also joining the show to serve as creative support.) Bryan Fuller was happy to congratulate the duo on their new job duties.

While delays and crew changes are usually indicative of a project in trouble, it really does seem like CBS got Fuller to step down solely for the greater good of everything he's working on. He's already put a ton of time and effort into breaking open a new storyline for Star Trek fans to obsess over, and it sounds like much of what he's already drafted, including a homage to one of the original Trek characters from the unaired pilot (both the character and the actress) will remain intact. It would have been crazy for CBS to go back to a clear drawing board.

So with Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts in place to live long and prosper in the showrunner spots, we will almost definitely get a rush of casting news announcements in the coming weeks. And that will likely be the first time we actually hear anything about anyone beyond just Number One. We need details!

So while things may be getting switched around on the creative side, it doesn't appear as if anything will directly hinder Star Trek: Discovery from make its big debut in May 2017 on CBS All Access. While waiting, though, check out our fall TV schedule to see what's yet to come to the small screen this year.

Things had been going so well for the Star Trek: Discovery in the Interesting New Developments department that I'd somehow forgotten that bad news could also occur. Alas, it has finally happened, though with a big silver lining. Star Trek: Discovery will no longer be coming to CBS All Access in the early days of 2017 as was originally planned, and its highly anticipated premiere will now come some months later, with The Good Wife's spinoff taking its place. But there's a good reason.

Executive producers Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman apparently approached CBS execs last week to request more time to put the show together, and so it was agreed upon that Star Trek: Discovery would be better suited for a debut in May 2017, rather than the planned bow in January. Thankfully, there aren't any problems tied to the request, and it's simply a matter of the creative team wanting to make sure everything - especially the special effects inherent to such a high-profile science fiction project - is as good as it can possibly be. That's something I think fans should be able to applaud them for, even if Klingon expletives are involved.

Star Trek: Discovery is a project that CBS All Access is using to put itself on the streaming platform map, so a lot of care and attention is being given to it, and it's extremely important to get everything right from the ground up. And this show isn't even going into actual production until November, so everyone involved would be constantly hitting crunch time in order to make the weekly airings from January on. This is a major plus for the sci-fi drama blasting off on a streaming site as opposed to a standard network, so seasonal schedules can't cause obstacles.

Considering how visionary a TV creator Bryan Fuller is and how memorable the aesthetic on each of his shows has been, his projects should always get as much breathing room as necessary. Double that when we're talking about one of the two biggest sci-fi franchises of all time. He's doing some great things with the plotline (which will follow female lead Number One on a journey prior to Kirk and Spock's adventures) and all of his inspirations sound right on the mark. If more time means more spectacle, so be it.

According to Variety, The Good Wife spinoff (which still doesn't have a title) will take the Star Trek slot and will put its first episode out to audiences in February 2017. The series will center on Christine Baranski's Diane Lockhart and Cush Jumbo's Lucca Quinn, though the details haven't been all that plentiful. Creators Robert and Michelle King will be the showrunners, with the future of summer series BrainDead up in the air at CBS.

Star Trek: Discovery will now hit CBS All Access in May 2017, which gives people more time to decide if they want to shell out more money for a commercial-free streaming experience. Find out everything you'll definitely be able to watch later this year by checking out our fall TV schedule.

For months, Star Trek fans were on the edge of their captain chair seats waiting to learn what the new TV show would be called, and it was revealed the upcoming sci-fi drama and its central ship will be named Discovery. That's a word that has many connotations, which is precisely the reasoning (or at least part of it) behind that name choice. Here's how creator Bryan Fuller put it.

Let's see, I'm trying to think of how Bryan Fuller could have done a better job at answering that question. He starts off with iconic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and one of the most acclaimed films of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey. In that film, the central spacecraft heading to Jupiter is the Discovery One, whose onboard computer HAL 9000 remains one of the most haunting presences in sci-fi. Of course, the Discovery One is eventually left behind as the main character goes on his time-looping transition into a fetus, but the ship's impact had already been felt.

From there, we jump to NASA, which is still mankind's most successful surveyor of outer space, and the shuttle Discovery racked up more spaceflights than any other craft over the course of 27 years in service. Though more private sector companies have entered the space race in recent years, it'll be a long time before anything can eclipse NASA's efforts here on Earth. But normal restrictions won't be stopping the Discovery at the center of a Star Trek series, and this ship will be able to go places we can only dream of.

It's that third point that is, of course, the most exciting. Since Star Trek's earliest days on the small screen, the franchise has done more than any other media-spanning form of entertainment to take fans to the furthest reaches of the universe and the imagination. And Bryan Fuller wants to find even more new things for people to get jazzed about, telling the crowd at Mission New York (via io9) that he's using this project as a way to refresh a lot of what we already know about Star Trek, while also adding a number of new alien races, ship designs and gadgets that will presumably enter the real world decades later.

Viewers will also discover what it will be like to watch a Star Trek series that doesn't have the ship's captain at the center of the narrative. We'll get to see Number One leading things, and Fuller claims this will allow the show to go deeper into how life goes on this particular Starfleet ship, giving it a different dynamic from what we're used to.

Unfortunately, we're still months from actually seeing Star Trek: Discovery on a weekly basis. The project is set to hit CBS All Access in January 2017, with its series premiere airing on CBS proper. But while you're waiting on that, check out everything else hitting the small screen in the coming months with our fall TV schedule.

While the upcoming series Star Trek Discovery hasn't yet fully taken control of public consciousness, diehard fans are paying attention to every little detail that comes out about the franchise's highly anticipated return to the small screen. Creator Bryan Fuller, whose involvement makes this show twice as exciting, has unleashed a lot of new details to earn that attention, particularly the lead character's name: Number One, a moniker that will ring a bell to those familiar with the history of Star Trek: The Original Series. ()

If you've only given a passing eye to the first Star Trek series - and haven't paid attention to the non-canon expanded universe - maybe you won't recognize the name Number One, as this was the female second-in-command in the original pilot that was turned down by NBC. As played by Majel Barrett in that initial Star Trek entry, Number One was the First Officer to Sean Kenney's Commander Christopher Pike, and it's a character that would have gone far in this franchise had the network not decided audiences would balk at a show with a female lead and an alien lead. (She later appeared in the meta episode "The Menagerie" through the use of archive footage.)

It wasn't made clear that this is meant to be the exact same character, but it seems like that has to be the case. Here's how Bryan Fuller dropped the knowledge to the radio show Nerd World Report, who inquired about rumors that Number One was the female lead.

There's something about Bryan Fuller saying how she's "called" Number One that has me curious, but we know Discovery exists within the same pre-reboot timeline, in the years before any Star Trek show or movie has been set. So it stands to reason that she would be the same Number One, even if Pike and Spock (and maybe Kirk?) are in her future. Perhaps she's just "called" Number One because these are the days before she earned that distinction as a First Officer. Strengthening that conjecture is the fact that Fuller says fans will get to learn the character's name in Season 1. I cannot wait to see who gets cast for this now.

Star Trek Discovery has no release window set just yet, but expect it to hit CBS All Access on a weekly basis in 2017 for its 13-episode first season. To see what's coming up this year that is sadly free from Bryan Fuller, check out our fall TV schedule.

There's been a lot of speculation floating around about just how Star Trek: Discovery will fit with the TV shows in the franchise that have gone before it, and now we finally know more of what to expect from the series, thanks to showrunner Bryan Fuller. It looks like long time Trek fans can definitely expect to be rewarded when Discovery begins to tell its story. Here's what Fuller had to say:

Bryan Fuller answered some questions about Star Trek: Discovery during the Television Critics Association's press tour on Wednesday (via Entertainment Weekly), and revealed a lot about the new show, while also cleverly leaving us to guess about many aspects of the upcoming series. While we've been wondering for months when exactly the new series would take place in the Prime timeline (that refers to the TV shows and non-J.J. Abrams movies), we now know that Discovery will actually begin a whole 10 years before the original adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the Enterprise crew.

Are you already going over every bit of information in your mental Star Trek files trying to figure out what big "incident and event" in the lore has been brought up but never fully explored or shown on camera? This is certainly a puzzle for the most die hard Trek fans. By the way, if you were guessing that the event that will lead to this "tantalizing" story is the Romulan War, Bryan Fuller would like you to know that you are very nearly on target, but, alas, not quite all the way there. The main character, who Fuller tells us will be female and a lieutenant commander in Starfleet as opposed to a captain, will need to figure herself out in order to figure out something alien. This might mean that the big event has something to do with first contact of an alien species, but something tells me that that's going to end up being too simplistic of an answer.

OK, the big challenge now is figuring out what the series could be using as a jumping off point that will lend itself to a serialized story. Bryan Fuller has certainly given us something to think on in the months leading up to the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, and we can get the full picture when the show hits CBS All Access in January next year.

While fans of Star Trek and Star Wars are not always mutually exclusive groups, there is a certain subset of each that will threaten to fight anyone who declares the other series to be better than the one they hold dear to their hearts. And, if you make the nearly criminal mistake of confusing the two properties, many people on both sides of the divide will get whatever underwear they use twisted into some intricate knots on behalf of their favorite franchise. Well, now it looks like the two properties will finally have something more in common than rabid fans. It looks like CBS' new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Discovery, will be using a ship that takes its design from legendary Star Wars conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie.

So, was this an accident? Apparently not. According to i09, After finally showing the world a glimpse of the new ship in a video that debuted at San Diego Comic Con on Saturday, Star Trek: Discovery executive producer Bryan Fuller was asked about the design of the ship, and its resemblance to the design Ralph McQuarrie had for the un-produced film Star Trek: Planet of the Titans. Here's what he had to say about how much this new ship was influenced by that old design:

Well, that sounds an awful lot like the production of Star Trek: Discovery knew exactly what they were doing when they developed the new starship for the show. Unfortunately, it also sounds like they decided to use the Ralph McQuarrie ship before they ironed out all the legal details for getting that design up and running for the new show. I can see why they would take a chance on the design, though. Star Trek: Planet of the Titans was in development from 1976 through 1977, and would have been the first Star Trek film based on the original series. McQuarrie came up with the idea for the design during that time, and because of his work on Star Wars, and the fact that the Star Trek film was never made, his idea for the ship has become a classic. Small models that were made during the development process of the film have actually shown up twice on screen; one was shown docked near the Enterprise in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, while the other is seen in the starship graveyard scene in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II." Take a look at the ship for yourself:

Assuming that the show can secure all the legalities necessary to keep this starship design, I think it'll be nice that Star Trek and Star Wars finally have something obvious in common to bridge the gaps between the two fandoms. We'll get to feast our eyes on Star Trek: Discovery when the show debuts next year.

After years of waiting, a new Star Trek television series is finally on the way. The franchise has been around now for 50 years, and while movies have certainly been significant, the small screen has long been its home. We've seen the original series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, and early next year fans will be able to reenter the original continuity with Star Trek: Discovery.

In celebration of Star Trek's 50th anniversary in 2016, a special presentation was hosted at Hall H in San Diego Comic-Con this Saturday afternoon, and while most of the focus was on the history of the franchise in pop culture, featuring castmembers from all versions of the series being interviewed by Star Trek Discovery showrunner Bryan Fuller, we also got confirmation of some new details about the new show. The title was announced with a special video showcasing the new ship that will be featured on the series, which will presumably be called the USS Discovery.

Amongst the new information revealed, Bryan Fuller announced that Star Trek: Discovery will be different from every Star Trek show that has come before it simply by being an adventure into a brand new structure and form of storytelling. While all of the previous series utilized an episodic format, allowing each episode to stand on its own and be watched mostly individually, that won't be the case with Fuller's new work. Instead, it will fit more in line with what most modern small screen dramas do, and will instead be much more serialized. Or as the showrunner put it,

This comically led William Shatner, who was amongst the panel members to question whether or not audiences would be confused if they miss an episode of the show - but Bryan Fuller said this wouldn't actually be a problem thanks to the CBS All Access program on which the series will be distributed.

While Star Trek: Discovery will be very different from all previous Star Trek shows in terms of structure, one thing that Bryan Fuller also drove home was the way in which it will fall in line with the original vision of creator Gene Roddenberry. Or as he specifically put it,

Are you excited about Star Trek: Discovery? What do you look forward to seeing from the show? Hit the comments section with your thoughts and opinions, and stay tuned for more updates in the coming months!

Bryan Fuller, the man who gave us the Hannibal TV series, is at Comic-Con this weekend promoting not one, but two new TV shows: a new Star Trek series and American Gods. Star Trek hasn't started filming yet but American Gods is well into production with a premiere date sometime in 2017 on Starz. American Gods is based on the novel of the same name written by Neil Gaiman, and the hope from Starz is the show has multiple seasons in its hopefully long future. The show, however, is based on one novel, leaving many fans to wonder how Bryan Fuller and crew planned to split it up to make enough material for television. The answer is actually pretty simple.

Bryan Fuller and fellow producer Michael Green are gearing up for a panel in room 6BCF at Comic-Con today, but the two recently did an interview with Deadline to give out some early details. Of the many topics discussed, one of the most important was how the duo divided the enough material for numerous seasons, and Fuller confirmed that the first season will not end when the book does.

Now that we have a solid idea of how long the show could potentially be, I'm sure my fellow book readers are doing the calculations to figure out at which point in the story each season will take place. The novel is filled with a lot of material and ideas, but it's mainly focused on ex-con Shadow (played by The 100's Rickie Whittle) so it's limited in that regard. It's not like Game of Thrones, where you can spread stuff out by focusing on dozens of characters. Fuller went on to elaborate that the key to getting multiple seasons was to slow things down. WAY down.

It's been a little while since I read the book, but I remember it was already slow to begin with (there's a lot of driving to places). We already know that the American Gods series will be giving some characters more focus than they had in the books so that's another way to spread it out. I'm still a little skeptical about the show, but it has such an interesting take on mythology that I want to see what Fuller and Green will do with it. Plus, you can't argue with Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday.

American Gods will debut in 2017 and you can watch it on the Starz network. Be sure to check in with CinemaBlend after the American Gods panel because there's bound to be some new information for the series.

When NBC cancelled Hannibal for low ratings after three seasons last June, the Fannibals lost their minds. The show got the cancellation notice too late to really wrap the series up, and, as such, ended on a huge cliffhanger. The fans have been hoping that Season 4 is still somehow possible, though. And now, thanks to Hannibal creator and showrunner Bryan Fuller, we know when we can start to hear news about whether or not that new season will happen.

There you have it Fannibals. Bryan Fuller spoke with Collider at the Saturn Awards this week, and revealed that we're a little over a year away from being able to find out if a cliffhanger-resolving Hannibal Season 4 will ever come to pass. The major issue currently standing in the way of Season 4 is who holds the actual rights to what characters and any new stories using them that would be told. For instance, streaming rights for the series were held by Amazon at the time of NBC's cancellation, which made it impossible for outlets like Hulu or Netflix to pick the show up and give it a new season. Fuller says that it takes two years from the time the show ended, which was August 29, 2015, to find out what kind of options would be available for the show as far as shopping a fourth season around and getting it to air on another network, or streaming site.

The finale, and lack of an immediate renewal, tried the patience of many fans. The series ended with Will and Hannibal in a massive three-way showdown with The Tooth Fairy, another serial killer who bites his victims. Between shooting and stabbing, Will and Hannibal were each seriously wounded, and the final moments of the series ended with Will grabbing Hannibal and taking them both over the cliff near Hannibal's holiday home. While the ending certainly took their twisty, love/hate relationship to bloody new levels, it also didn't leave a lot of room for either to survive, or, at least, to possibly explain how they could have survived the epic fall. Viewers are, understandably, anxious to see what could have happened next.

While it seems like a little over a year is an unbelievably long time to wait on news of Hannibal Season 4, let's remember that several shows have come back for more after a long time off the air. The X-Files had a blockbuster short return this year after originally ending its run in 2002; Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming back after being gone for five years, and Prison Break is currently filming a return after ending in 2009. So, it's not impossible that we could actually see Season 4 of Hannibal in the near-ish future. All we have to do now is wait and see.

When Star Trek fans found out that CBS was committed to bringing another small screen iteration of the classic franchise to life there were a lot of people who cheered and a lot of people who just got plain nervous. No one wants to see the Star Trek legacy besmirched, and the production has given us blessedly little information on what exactly this new series will be like. Now, though, thanks to showrunner Bryan Fuller, we have at least one idea of how this Star Trek will play out.

While speaking with Collider on the red carpet of the Saturn Awards yesterday, new Star Trek showrunner Bryan Fuller confirmed that this series will tell one story over the course of 13 episodes. While there have been some serialized story arcs on the other Star Trek shows, the prevailing show structure has always been that of individual episodes that tell separate stories. With the notable exception of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's overall story conflict, which lasted throughout the entire series and featured a large cast of recurring players along with show regulars. Along with previously working on Star Trek: Voyager, Fuller also had a hand in crafting stories for Deep Space Nine, so this is something he clearly knows how to handle from the Star Trek perspective.

Seeing as how only one of the five Star Trek shows relied on an overall story arc during the entirety of its run, this is indeed a pretty big change for the new Star Trek. One thing the show already has going for it, though, is that it should be much easier to tell stories that way with only 13 episodes per season to construct. This should make it relatively simple for the writers and producers to craft an interesting arc and make sure the storytelling doesn't lag because of too many episodes that simply hold back the main action for the sake of keeping things going for a full 22 episodes.

During the interview, Bryan Fuller also noted that they already have the full season arc planned out, and the first six episodes broken down, which is certainly good to hear. It's another sign that the production is taking the challenge of bringing fans new Star Trek stories seriously, and that there shouldn't be any sudden surprises that seem to make no sense within the overall plot.

OK, I'll admit, my first thought when I heard that we were finally, after a TV absence of more than 11 years by the time the new show airs, getting brand new Star Trek was along the lines of "Y'all better not fuck this up". And, while we still don't have anywhere near enough details about the show, knowing that Bryan Fuller worked on Deep Space Nine (my favorite Star Trek anything ever), and that his team has already done a considerable amount of mapping out for the debut run, has made me feel a lot better. So, are you looking forward to this Star Trek, or are you still too nervous to tell? Let us know in the comments.

Television news recently has seen an awful lot of reboots and continuations of past franchises brought back. While reboot-a-palooza can get a bit tiresome, the news of the return to the Star Trek universe was definitely welcome. In an exciting development, CBS has announced the official showrunner for the next Star Trek series, and it sounds like a real home run of a choice. It won’t be Kirk or Picard or Janeway at the helm of the new journey, but it will be somebody with an extensive knowledge of all things Trek: Bryan Fuller.

Bryan Fuller launched his career in the Star Trek universe, writing for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. It was on Voyager that Fuller managed to work his way up from freelance writer to staff writer to co-producer. He’ll be credited as co-creator and executive producer on the new show and CBS says he is set to be the showrunner on the new series.

Fuller will be joined by another person who can boast Star Trek writing experience: Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman co-wrote the two most recent big screen ventures in the Trek franchise and will co-write the third. He should be an ideal partner for Fuller.

The long-rumored new series will not air on CBS as a regular primetime show. A special preview broadcast will land a spot in the CBS lineup early in 2017, but subsequent episodes will be exclusively available to subscribers to CBS All Access. CBS All Access is the digital subscription service available for a monthly fee. Although the service certainly isn’t on par with a Netflix or Hulu option, we can bet that exclusive rights to a new Star Trek series will see an influx of subscribers. Bryan Fuller’s series may not have a slot in the regular CBS lineup, but it will surely find a respectable audience on All Access.

Details about the plot of the upcoming Star Trek series are scarce, but Bryan Fuller coming on board promises that it should fit into existing continuity for longtime Trek Fans, as well as break ground for a new generation of new viewers. Considering that 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise, this news of Fuller’s involvement couldn’t be more promising.

Of course, the news that is promising for Star Trek is less so for American Gods on Starz. Fuller is currently working as an executive producer and writer on the adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman novel. The Starz show may be getting significantly less attention from Bryan Fuller as he works to get Star Trek off the ground for 2017. We'll let you know what's going on with American Gods as it continues the casting process.

Bryan Fuller’s experience with Star Trek on top of his work on series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal is proof enough that he’s more than qualified to head up the new Star Trek. The only problem with the news of his involvement is that the wait for new material feels just a little bit longer. To get a head start, check out CBS All Access ahead of time.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, whether it’s a loved one, a TV show, or an appendage. While Hannibal fans may never again get to see new episodes of the outrageously high-quality horror drama, the universe has thankfully provided us one more peek into that world through an unsettling PETA commercial starring Gillian Anderson. Check out the awesomeness below.

We all know that anything with Gillian Anderson in it demands viewing, and this ad is particularly poignant, particularly if you’re into the message it’s delivering. Anderson – or is it Bedelia? – is sitting at Hannibal Lecter’s dinner table, seemingly getting ready to tackle a huge meal all by herself. And then by the end of it, the saying “you are what you eat” becomes ridiculously timely, as it’s revealed she’s about to eat her own leg! Soylent Green is people! That meal is out on a limb! Leggo my leg, yo! I’m done now.

Appropriately, this spot was directed by Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller, who not only has ties to the show itself, but also firmly believes in what PETA stands for. Fuller has been a vegetarian for years, and has said publically that his work on Hannibal has made him even more sensitive to animals being used as food. Here’s what he had to say about it.

Thankfully, meat consumption has nothing to do with artistic vision, and Fuller brought his A-game to the ad. It’s truly one of the more gorgeous commercials out there, regardless of how disturbing it is.

Fans are still keeping hope alive that Hannibal will be allowed to continue beyond Season 3, which concluded earlier this year. There’s a chance that it could live on in movie form, though it’s unlikely that a future on TV is in the cards, given Fuller’s preference that the creation process be an organic and timely one, rather than sped up just to hit a specific schedule window.

Fuller’s followers – Fullerwers? – can look forward to seeing his work on screen again when Starz debuts the Neil Gaiman adaptation American Gods next year. And Anderson adorers are well aware that she’ll be reprising her role as Dana Scully in Fox’s upcoming X-Files revival kicking off in January.

Amazing Stories, the anthology series that focused on the weird and the strange back in 1985, is coming back to television to deliver more tales from the odd and the fantastic. For two seasons, the series that was created by legendary director Steven Spielberg chronicled supernatural tales. Now, the show returns, but so far sans Spielberg.

NBC, which aired the original for two seasons from 1985 to 1987, will revive the series with Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller at the helm, according to Entertainment Weekly. Fuller will executive produce and write the pilot script. Fuller is also showrunning the Starz series American Gods, based on the acclaimed novel by fantasy writer Neil Gaiman.

The original Amazing Stories earned massive critical acclaim, and received 12 Emmy Award nominations that netted the series five wins. If you’re thinking that the show's name sounds oddly familiar, that could be because the iconic pulp science-fiction short story magazine Amazing Stories not only shares the same name, but licensed the name to the show.

The announcement of Amazing Stories’ revival coincides with two prevalent trends happening in television right now. First, there's the revisiting of older properties in an attempt to cash in on nostalgia and the audience’s fondness and longing for these familiar brands such as the recently announced MacGyver, The A-Team, and Fantasy Island. And then there's reemergence of the anthology format as seen in shows like True Detective and American Horror Story, to name a few.

A closer look at Fuller’s body of work denotes the acclaimed director as the perfect fit for the reboot. Fuller, like Spielberg (who could always jump onto the project as a later date as an executive producer), dropped out of USC’s film school, and his work as a writer/director imbues a quirky, geektastic sensibility that will lend itself well to Amazing Stories. A self-professed sci-fi fanatic, Fuller cut his teeth writing for the Star Trek universe for both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Fuller then created several series that earned cult followings, such as Dead Like Me, which was a dark comedy revolving around grim reapers who set about to collect souls; Fox’s Wonderfalls, which followed a clerk who conversed with wax animals; and ABC’s Pushing Daisies, about a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with his touch. Fuller’s blend of comedy and surrealism may ensure that the reiteration of Amazing Stories has a chance at success at NBC, though that will largely depend on the budget and leeway afforded him by the network.

Despite the original Amazing Stories critical success, the show was cancelled after two seasons due to poor ratings. Both seasons ranked in the 40s on the Nielsen charts, which led to its ultimate demise. However, the show also gave us Spielberg’s 1987 classic *batteries not included. It will be interesting to see how much, if at all, Fuller uses the show to indulge his “Fullerverse,” a fan-dubbed phenomenon in which Fuller utilizes characters and icons throughout his various series, or whether it leads Fuller to developing entirely new characters and stories.

Bryan Fuller's brilliant Hannibal series might have come to an end on television this past weekend, but it's possible that we have not yet seen the end of the show's impressive continuity. As we learned back during San Diego Comic-Con, one of the options being pursued for the future of the story is the idea of making a big screen movie - and apparently producers are already out talking to people about making that idea a reality.

With the Hannibal series finale airing last night on NBC, The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with Bryan Fuller about the show's present, past and future, and it was during the conversation that the showrunner revealed progress for a possible feature follow-up to the series' three season run. At this stage, executive producer Martha De Laurentiis is apparently looking into financing for the project, and Fuller already has a specific idea of the story that he wants to tell in the feature format. He said, careful not to give away too many details,

Moving forward with a movie based on the Hannibal series is just one direction that the continuity can move in, but it seems as though it is the one that Bryan Fuller is most excited about pursuing. It's true that he doesn't actually have any feature experience at this point in his career, but he sees stars Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen as "movie actors," and says that the approach to the show has always been more like independent cinema than normal television. Plus, he acknowledges that the franchise had a great deal of success in the film medium long before it went to the small screen.

It's this last part of his argument that makes the idea of a new Hannibal movie sound like a totally reasonable idea. With the exception of 2007's Hannibal Rising, the Thomas Harris-created franchise has had great success in the feature film world, and one can imagine that audiences wouldn't have much of a problem seeing the characters return - especially given the critical acclaim that the show has received. The only real concern is that movie-goers may avoid it thinking that they will be lost without having seen the series, but people are so familiar with Hannibal Lecter's story that that might not really be an issue.

Do you think that Hannibal should make its way back to the big screen, or do you think that Bryan Fuller should be looking into either a miniseries or a new season somewhere other than NBC? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

Though we may never see it on network television again following its last episode on NBC, Bryan Fuller’s lush interpretation of Hannibal will remain in our memories for ages, due to its haunting imagery, stellar performances and vicious murders. And one might think that gory impalements and (mostly) dead bodies sewn together would be the thing that network censors would have a big problem with, but no, it was apparently something more sexual that NBC wanted out of a particular episode.

During the excellent Hannibal panel at this past weekend’s Comic-Con, Fuller was asked if NBC ever balked at anything the extremely adult series was presenting, and he went a little deeper into an anger-fueled tweet he’d sent out last year during Season 2.

For ages, conversations have been had about violence getting less scrutiny than sexual situations on TV and in movies, and though Hannibal was more into disturbing psyches through artistic means more than crassly violent ones, there have been loads of severely fucked up scenes that sensitive children ideally wouldn’t have access to. So it’s a good smack to the forehead that NBC is more comfortable showing adults gruesome sequences that almost never happen in real life than a slang phrase for something that happens every day all over the world. But it’s not surprising, really, but I can’t complain about the head-scratching phrase “button-stitching” being the way to go here.

Later on in Season 3, Fuller is introducing the Red Dragon storyline, for which Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage) makes his entrance as a people-biting, family-murdering sicko whose dual life is brought into motion by a William Blake painting. It’s not the most easily digestible arc for those with a weak stomach or mind, and it’s certainly more challenging to the senses than a tossed-off sexual comment.

Wondering what the initial phrase was? Here’s Fuller’s tweet.

Perhaps if we ever see Hannibal on cable or streaming for a Season 4, assuming everyone signs back on, then Fuller can use all the euphemisms he wants while making the things happening onscreen even more ghoulishly gut-wrenching.

Watch Hannibal on Thursdays on NBC. Somebody has to!

Just about a week ago, things weren’t looking up for Hannibal fans. Following the show’s cancellation by NBC last month, we had hoped there would be some sort of revival, a pick-up by another network for Season 4. But as news came in that both Netflix and Amazon had passed on the project, hope was running low. It may be time to pick up our chins though, as showrunner Bryan Fuller just teased the possibility of a feature film.

During what could be Hannibal’s final Comic-Con appearance, Fuller was obviously prompted on the status of Season 4. Was there another network willing to step in? Could Fuller find life for Will Graham and Hannibal Lector elsewhere? To a crowd of his most dedicated fans, Fuller gave the best answer he could:

Fuller also explained the reasoning behind some network’s dismissals. For Netflix, it came down to a streaming deal. Since Hannibal was already on contract for an Amazon streaming deal, it caused difficulty for Netflix. And when it came to Amazon, Fuller explained that they would have like to have done the fourth season, but they wanted a quicker turnaround then the showrunners saw possible.

Hugh Dancy who portrays Will Graham in the series, also spoke out during the panel reiterating the cast and crew’s commitment to continuing the series, one way or another.

Though one of the reasons that Hannibal has seen so much success, is because of its unique view of the pre-Silence of the Lambs Hannibal Lector in TV format, it would be interesting to see the property turned into a feature film. As Fuller teased, Season 3 will end in a way that gives the showrunners an opportunity to break and work out something new to follow. Depending on the cliffhanger that comes along with this season’s finale, there may be enough to hold out for a film. Though that will most likely take much more time to create.

For now, you can catch the rest of Season 3 Hannibal Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC and we’ll keep you updated on any progress on hopefully a new home.

Ambition will get you nowhere. At least that seems to be how it goes when it comes to the TV world, as the lovely and lushly horrifying drama Hannibal will apparently be coming to an end after only three seasons on NBC, which has put a fork in the low-rated fan favorite series. Why wasn’t anybody watching this amazingness?!?

Sadly, those who adore Hannibal with all their heart and soul (and rib meat) can hardly bring too harsh a judgment onNBC, which has kept the show on the air for three seasons despite some horrendously low ratings. Though it has been one of the most consistently acclaimed series on TV – especially on the broadcast spectrum – Hannibal saw its ratings take gradual downfalls each season. Its first two episodes brought in over 4 million viewers, but it never quite managed to make it there again, and most of its episodes saw less than 3 million tuning in.

Season 3 was apparently the last straw, with the June 4 premiere getting watched by just 2.5 million people, with the second and third episodes bringing in just 1.6 million viewers. No network will gladly put forth big bucks and a prime Thursday night timeslot to something without a dependable core audience, no matter how good people say it is. And man, it was great.

Here’s how creator Bryan Fuller humorously and wisely showed his appreciation in a statement, according to TVLine.

Fuller fans finally got to see the visionary TV vet have a self-created show get to three seasons, which sadly didn’t happen with Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies or Wonderfalls. Season 3 of Hannibal, which thankfully isn’t getting pulled from NBC’s schedule (yet), will finally delve into the Red Dragon storyline from Thomas Harris’ novels, which should be outstanding. And fans were hoping that rights issues between NBCUniversal and MGM could get worked out so that the iconic FBI agent Clarice Starling could make her small screen debut. As it stands, we may never get to see that, but apparently the production company DeLaurentiis Co. is exploring their options.

For now, though, we’re just going to have to put all of our Bryan Fuller eggs in the glorious basket that is Starz’s upcoming adaptation of American Gods, which ain’t too shabby at all. But to have them both on their air at the same time would have been amazing. Come on, Netflix or Amazon, sink your teeth into Hannibal soon, will you?

While comic book fans wait with bated breath to see if Joseph Gordon-Levitt will ever get his Sandman adaptation off of the ground, another one of Neil Gaiman’s most popular works is definitely moving forward. The amazing premium cable network Starz has given the greenlight to a small screen take on American Gods from Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller and Green Lantern scribe Michael Green. I’m about to become the New God of Squee.

While the details about the series are pretty scarce – we don’t know how many episodes there are or if they’re treating it as a limited series or a multi-season show – there’s a soundly optimistic factoid in the announcement: the beginning of the production is based mostly on the producers casting the lead role of Shadow Moon. Considering how insanely well-cast all of Fuller’s other projects have been over the years, I can’t imagine they’ll find anyone less than amazing to take the part. But it would be nice if they could have already had a handful of people in mind so that this process could be sped up. To help things along, the hashtag “#CastingShadow” is being used.

In American Gods, Shadow Moon is an ex-con who gets out of jail soon after a family tragedy. He gets hired as a bodyguard by a strange man named Mr. Wednesday, who is the modern version of Odin, one of the old gods that also includes Anansi, Thoth, Anubis and more. Wednesday is on a quest to bring all of the old gods together for an epic confrontation with the new gods, including TV, the Internet, credit cards, etc. Shit gets real.

Fuller and Green will serve as showrunners for the series, and they’ll be writing the scripts. I’d be excited to see this story come to life in anyone’s hands –and was jazzed when Tom Hanks wanted to produce it for HBO some years back – but to have Fuller involved is like a visionary dream come true, especially when thinking about some of the more imaginatively visual aspects of the novel. Neil Gaiman doesn’t know how to write boring scenarios.

Speaking of the author, who won a ton of awards for American Gods, here’s how he reacted to the news.

It’s so interesting that he brings up casting Laura, who is Shadow’s wife in the novel. Her lack of presence is actually what plays more into Shadow’s life. I wonder if she’ll have a bigger part to play here, or if they have to find just the right actress for THAT scene.

With American Gods and Ash vs. Evil Dead coming in the future, Starz just bounded past almost every other network on its way to becoming the most exciting channel on TV.

Now that Hannibal is back on NBC and blowing audiences’ minds with its lush change in direction with a (sadly temporary) new setting, it’s easier to see how showrunner Bryan Fuller’s mind is working as far as the future of the show is concerned. But something fans will presumably never stop wondering until it happens is whether or not the iconic heroine Clarice Starling will pop up at some point. And while Fuller has been partially against the idea for different reasons in the past, he now seems to be considering it a little more.

While the first two seasons of Hannibal played more like procedural dramas caught up in lucid dreamstates, Fuller’s approach to Season 3 will split its focus into one Italy-based half and a second half, which will focus on the Red Dragon storyline. As far as Season 4 will go, Fuller spoke with IGN about his thoughts behind the approaching Silence of the Lambs arc.

I have to admit that as much as I love Clarice as a character, I’m intrigued by any and every direction Fuller wants to take this show, and I won’t be downtrodden or brokenhearted if the rights issues over the character stay muddled. Every character that Fuller has been able to bring to the small screen has been superb, from previously established characters like Will Graham to new creations like Bedelia Du Maurier, so I’m perfectly willing to watch whatever new leading characters he may have lined up for future seasons.

That said, should the rights to Clarice get cleared up and allow her to enter the TV series with few strings attached, I’m willing to bet the new take on the character would easily rival Jodie Foster’s turn in Jonathan Demme’s highly acclaimed 1991 feature. (While Julianne Moore’s take on Clarice was fine in the film Hannibal, that’s not even in contention.) I expect only a top-notch actress would fill the role, and her journey would be extraordinarily complex and deeply thought-out. Fuller has proven time and again that he excels with female leads, so we can expect nothing less with Clarice.

Any way it goes, really, we’re going to get greatness out of Hannibal in the future. But we just have to make sure enough people are watching that NBC feels confident giving it more seasons.

"Nothing happened to me, I happened."

The best TV show of last year is finally back for Season 3 and, judging by the first three installments, it hasn't lost a step. Hannibal didn't just avoid the sophomore slump last year, it put shows that falter after a great first season to shame with a new batch of episodes that somehow improved upon the NBC series’ already

[[ href http hannibal-review-bryan-fuller-dark-serial-killer-drama-premieres-thursday-night-54305.html television www.cinemablend.com ]] stellar first course. That's

[[ href http hannibal-season-2-review-second-helping-delicious-first-62549.html television www.cinemablend.com ]] a lot to live up to ( or a ‘tall order,’ as it were), but Bryan Fuller and his creative team outdid themselves again, delivering the psychological horror’s most daring season yet.

So far, of course. As I mentioned, I've only seen the first three episodes of the new season - "Antipasto," "Primavera" and "Secondo" (yes, it’s an Italian menu) - so it's hard to claim with certainty that Hannibal will hit the extreme highs of say, last year's jaw-dropping finale, but it does get off to a truly terrific start. Without getting into too much narrative detail - because nobody wants the delectable dishes spoiled - the first installment picks up eight months after the events of “Mizumono,” leaving its unanswered questions unanswered for a little while longer just to make the audience squirm, something the series does better than another other on the small screen.

Actually, now that I think about it, there really isn’t too much I can give away, as a shift to Hannibal’s point-of-view simultaneously narrows the show’s narrative scope while Season 3′s exquisite European locations expand it visually. Will Graham spent the first two seasons walking us into Hannibal's tortured mind, and now we finally get a taste of what the series would (or will) be like without the empathetic special investigator holding our hands and softening each murder through his reenactments. Sure, it was pretty creepy to watch our hero commit such brutal acts of violence, but he also served as a buffer between us and the real monster(s). That buffer is gone.

“Antipasto” offers a glimpse at what the future of Hannibal looks like (it’s bright) before “Primavera” settles the show into familiar territory with Will taking the lead. "Secondo” strikes a balance with the leading men sharing the screen-time. The series’ nifty storytelling structure - where the past, present, future and subconscious exist concurrently - allows Fuller and company to put the bromance back front and center, even though Will and Hannibal are playing cat and mouse (or, more appropriately, Van Helsing and Dracula). What's more, it also unveils who survived the Season 2 finale, and lets them deal with the trauma, one enticing episode at a time.

Will surviving the bloody cliffhanger is all that I’ll say about the fate of those Hannibal left for dead, and instead will highlight the horror series’ compelling new characters like Fortunato Cerlino as Inspector Pazzi and Tao Okamoto as Chiyoh, both figures from Dr. Lecter’s past who hope to have an impact on his future. And, according to the casting reports, there are several more exciting additions (as well as returning characters) to come: most importantly, Richard Armitage’s Red Dragon.

Good luck to them. We all know what happens to those that meddle in the good doctor’s affairs. It’s part of why we tune in every week and, don’t worry, the three episodes I’ve seen are not lacking in Hannibal’s signature gruesome moments. Or its beautiful compositions, for that matter, with James Hawkinson still on as the series’ cinematographer and Vincenzo Natali and Neil Marshall taking over from David Slade as the go-to directors for the third season. It’s a visual feast, and Brian Reitzell’s score continues to compliment the complex and sumptuous imagery like the perfect bottle of wine.

As I said it in my review of NBC’s Aquarius, I wish Hannibal was the series the network picked as the binge model test subject. I want to devour it all. Perhaps it’s better this way, though. A series this rich shouldn’t be rushed, it should be savoured.

Hannibal returns with its third season premiere Thursday, June 4 at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Created by Bryan Fuller (and based on "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal Rising" by Thomas Harris), the series stars Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Gillian Anderson, Caroline Dhavernas, Kacey Rohl and Laurence Fishburne. Season 3 also features Richard Armitage, Rutina Wesley, Tao Okamoto, Fortunato Cerlino, Joe Anderson, Glenn Fleshler and Nina Arianda.

Television series tend to work in cyclical rhythms, and lately we’ve seen a most unfortunate trend of rape stories taking over certain fictional landscapes, such as Outlander and Game of Thrones. But fans of NBC’s Hannibal don’t have to worry about seeing this barbaric crime taking over the storyline in Season 3, even though the source material features it, as creator Bryan Fuller just won’t stand for it from either a creative or an audience standpoint.

Speaking with EW about rape in TV fiction, Fuller went into detail in a manner that was much more refreshing than the subject at hand, and explained why those kinds of stories will be vacant from his show.

It’s an interesting approach to the Tooth Fairy story, as the corpse-rapes were some of the more troublesome actions of a villain in literature, and it’s a big part of why seeing Francis Dolarhyde on the small screen seemed like a weirdly intriguing nightmare come true. After all, Fuller’s visionary approach to storytelling both whimsical and horrifying is always interesting and thoughtful. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thankful that these heinous crimes won’t be front and center.

Still, it sounds like Fuller isn’t avoiding the rape aspect of the Tooth Fairy altogether, but is weaving it into the larger series of atrocities.

Saying that rape stories on TV are normally shorthanded and can’t properly delve into how such a violation can affect people, Fuller went on to say that it’s not the kind of thing that interests him as an audience member. He points out that he has less of a problem finding entertainment value from cannibalism, which he thinks has a sense of irony about it. Plus, it’s not like people (mostly women) are walking around at night scared of cannibals leering at them. And for what it’s worth, Fuller thinks that the recent rape fiasco on Game of Thrones was handled tastefully and worked to serve the story being told about its characters. Unfortunately, not all shows are able to do that.

We’ll have to see just how tactfully Fuller handles things when Season 3 of Hannibal debuts on Thursday, June 4, on NBC.

For some reason, this is what I thought of upon hearing the good news. Just replace 'Panama' with Hannibal and enjoy while you read...

A celebratory feast is certainly in order as Hannibal has been renewed for a third season. After all, it would have been rather rude of NBC to cancel the best drama on network television, not to mention one aging like a fine wine. Season 2 got off to an extraordinary start and has somehow managed to keep topping itself every episode, so it's reassuring to know that Bryan Fuller's story based on the iconic character won't be over two weeks from tonight. The gorgeous and compelling nightmare continues. The show tossed some 'people confetti' and shared this pic...

The renewal was officially announced earlier this afternoon, a perfect time to get fan(nibal)s even more excited for the third-to-last installment of the season that has slowly revealed Will's design. And now we don't have to worry about whether or not Hannibal will have a proper finish since, according to Fuller's vision for the Thomas Harris adaptation, this guarantees that the series will at least get to tell all of the events before Red Dragon.

Don't get me wrong, I want to see what the showrunner has in store for us with the Tooth Fairy; however, I could live with turning to Michael Mann's Manhunter and Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs to complete the story. And some of Ridley Scott's Hannibal. Even parts of Brett Ratner's Red Dragon are pretty good. Sorry, off track. I'm obviously hoping to see Mads Mikkelsen's version of the villain go through all these stories under the sure hand of Bryan Fuller (with or without the rights to Clarice), but it's important to take it one season at a time and just getting to the end of the third one is huge.

There's an exclusive new look at tonight's episode, "K? No Mono," on Hannibal's Tumblr. Here's the "old' one for good measure. Oh, and there's also a picture (from reddit) that offers a look at next week's "Tome-wan," this season's penultimate installment. It's quite telling for those familiar with the source material. I'm warning you "up here" in case you don't want to spoil your appetite. Otherwise, chow down...

Hannibal returns with Episode 11, "K? No Mono," tonight at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Created by Bryan Fuller and (loosely) based on the novel 'Red Dragon' by Thomas Harris, the series stars Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas and Laurence Fishburne.

After a terrific first season and (what felt like) a terribly long wait, Hannibal returns to NBC tonight with a highly anticipated second helping. Fans of Bryan Fuller’s take on Thomas Harris’ iconic characters have been starving for more ever since the first taste of his inspired adaptation left their mouths. And two episodes into Season 2, Hannibal is just as delicious as ever. Maybe more.

As I said in the primer for the premiere, it's hard not to use puns when writing about the decadent series, but I'm going to do my best to to pass on the opportunities because Hannibal is no joke. It's still the best drama on network television. Of course, that's not to suggest the show's without levity; Fuller infuses the horror with a sense of fun. I mean, he gives his episodes food related titles. Last season it was all French cuisine. This year, Japanese.

Anyone familiar the source material — be it Harris' "Red Dragon" (and subsequent novels) or the feature films — are likely to get an extra kick out of Fuller's winking nods and reversals. At the same time, everyone will appreciate a version so unique and compelling. The small screen adaptation always feels playful and it shines through in otherwise nightmarish scenarios. That's largely what the series is about: showing the audience what a nightmare it is to be Will Graham.

But as dark as his dreams become they are still beautifully photographed and full of rich characters constantly sparring with witty dialogue. The returning cast continues to shine in their respective roles with Mads Mikkelsen deserving special mention for continuing to make a role performed by four other actors feel so fresh — especially considering Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for his portrayal. Having said that, Mikkelsen's Lecter is the best take on the cannibal yet, able to bring everything that his predecessors had as well as an imposing physical presence.

I don't want to diminish the wonderful work Hugh Dancy is doing as Graham, but he doesn't face as big of a challenge as Mikkelsen in making the tortured character his own. As a pair they are fantastic. The other members of the ensemble are also great in their roles, especially Laurence Fishburne as Jack Crawford and Gillian Anderson as Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier. However, since Hannibal is really about the relationship between the two leading men they deserve most of the praise.

And Bryan Fuller, of course. Everything ultimately boils down to his brilliant vision filled with luscious production design and beautifully macabre dreamscapes. The way the characters are drawn and how every case not only adds a horrific tale to tell each week (and boy, is the first one horrific) but deepens the relationship between Hannibal and Will, is impressive. They are so alike and yet so different. Each brilliant but both with their weaknesses. It's a thrilling dynamic and this is only the beginning of their chess match.

It's scary to think how close we potentially came to not having a second season of Hannibal. NBC could have easily not renewed the under-watched series, yet the show made it by on critical acclaim. It's a rare feat and something that shouldn't be taken for granted. I don't want this series to be another great that needs a 'save the show' campaign. Savour this show while it's on the air. And look, it's dinner time. Oh, right. The puns.

Hannibal returns for its second season premiere, "Kaiseki," on Friday at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Created by Bryan Fuller and based on the novel 'Red Dragon' by Thomas Harris, the series stars Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas, Cynthia Nixon, Gillian Anderson and Laurence Fishburne.

Need more convincing? Watch the opening scene...

Turns out our poor, mentally addled Will Graham’s real-life counterpart, Hugh Dancy, has a bit of a sense of humor about the absolute horror show his Hannibal character has endured (and will likely continue to endure) thus far. As the star of the NBC/Bryan Fuller drama, a lot of the emotional heavy lifting is on the actor’s shoulders — and often some of the most intense scenes live and die at his feet. Especially now that Will Graham — season one spoilers, kids! — is locked up for the crimes creepy Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) has committed.

During the actor’s Reddit AmA we learned heaps not only about the show, but about Dancy’s homelife with fellow seriously-addled type (Homeland’s Carrie Mathison, played by his wife Claire Danes), the genius that is Bryan Fuller, and why actress Nina Arianda could've ended up on the show. (Which would've been AMAZING, for the record.) Turns out? Hugh Dancy is a funny man. We've compiled his 11 funniest moments as he danced around the conversation of swiggity swag the nightmare stag (really: we just wanted an excuse to type that).

For those of you that need a refresher on what’s happened leading up to Friday night’s premiere, check out our very own Jesse Carp’s impressive write-up here. Otherwise sit back, relax, and let a little bit of levity wash over you.

1. On Will Graham’s excessive bodily fluid make-up: “There's so many different types [of sweat]. But that's nothing compared to the blood. There's clothes blood, hair blood, eye blood, mouth blood, prosthetics dept blood and on and on. For some reason it's never quite the right consistency or colour so we end up creating a cocktail with everyone chipping in their opinions - bit darker, no no that's too arterial. And then they cover me in it.”
   
2. Regarding what flowers Mads Mikkelsen’s breath smells like: “Not any I’ve encountered.”
   
3. On his favorite moment inhabiting Will Graham’s illness: “I liked when Will started sleepwalking except that it required me to walk around the country roads outside Toronto in sub-zero temperatures in my underwear. ... Lots of fun. Like, 'this week you get to have aural hallucinations'. Great!”
   
4. On a particularly noisy moment (of the bodily variety) during season two: “I had to join those good people on the floor (as you'll see) and I can tell you all bodily noises were being emitted.”
   
5. Answering the question “How does Mads Mikkelsen smell like?”: “With his nose like everyone else.”
   
6. He even had culinary suggestions for Friday night’s premiere: “I would try something vegetarian for dinner. Or just watch Hannibal we'll eat for you.”
   
7. As to whether or not Hannibal would survive a zombie apocalypse (always gotta have a zombie question on Reddit): “He would be their God. But I think he'd find it a little trying, I've never heard of a zombie with a passion for cooking their food.”
   
8. On the tousled perfection that is Will Graham’s hair: “I have a professional tousle who travels with me at all times.”
   
9. Regarding his convincing American accent: “They can do amazing things in post though so its possible they put me through some kind of American filter.”
   
10. On cannibalism and whether or not humans would realize they were eating humans: “Absolutely. There’s no way you can recognize something you haven’t already encountered. Unless there’s something you’re trying to tell me..?”
    
11. On his favorite Will Graham line from season one: “I like the smell of urinal cake.”

Hannibal returns for a second helping Friday, February 28th at 10PM on NBC.

The first season of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal wasn't just one of the best new series last season, it was one of the best series on the small-screen, period. Although some were not initially taken with the idea of Thomas Harris' 'Red Dragon' being adapted for network television, it was clear from the very first serving that Hannibal was something special. And shame on the doubters, those familiar with Fuller's body of work would have known that the brilliant (yet twisted) mind behind Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies could deliver a unique, compelling and oddly beautiful take on the iconic villain. Oh, and the lesser known, but equally important, troubled hero as well. Here's a tidy recap of Season 1...

The first season did an exceptional job weaving the episodic and serialized storylines, with the case of the week really just serving as a way to explore the budding 'bromance' between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham (portrayed to perfection by Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, respectively) as well as weaken the latter's state of mind with each dead body. An ongoing nightmare that pushed the boundaries of the procedural and brought horror with a delicious wit to network television.

Most of the creative team that made the first season such a treat will be back to ensure the quality doesn't slip, including Fuller (of course) and co-writers Andy Black and Scott Nimerfro in addition to exciting staff newcomers like X-Files alum Jeff Vlaming. Hannibal's aesthetically stunning style is also sure to continue, with Hardy Candy director David Slade (an executive producer on the show) one of a few filmmakers returning for seconds. And, as was the case with the writers, there are also exciting fresh eyes behind the camera including Vincenzo Natali (Cube) and Tim Hunter (Twin Peaks).

The first preview for Season 2 suggests that they assembled the right ingredients. And things are heating up. Sorry, I'll try to lay off the puns from here on out, they're just so tempting. Take a look...

The use of the MONA cover of Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' was an inspired choice for the promo, a little bit haunting and a little over the top. As gruesome as Hannibal can get, and as you can see, it's only going to get bloodier, Fuller always keeps that tongue close to the cheek. I mean, just look at the charming Cooking with Hannibal tease made for the upcoming season. Or how he's named all of the second season's episodes after Japanese cuisine. (The first batch were all classical French.) Wonderful. The words and images that accompanied the eerie, bordering on cheesy, song were similarly powerful, especially those striking close-ups of our surviving characters.

Those that did make it out of Season 1 alive — Laurence Fishburne's Jack Crawford, Caroline Dhavernas' Dr. Alana Bloom, Hettienne Park's Katz, Scott Thompson's Price, Aaron Abrams' Zeller and yes, Lara Jean Chorostecki's Freddie Lounds — are all reprising their roles, however, the returning guest stars and several new faces are likely much more interesting. As far as the returning guest stars, Eddie Izzard will be back to terrify as Dr. Gideon, the murderer mistaken Chesapeake Ripper, and you can get a glimpse of both Gillian Anderson's Dr. Du Maurier, Hannibal's psychiatrist, and Raúl Esparza's Dr. Chilton, the man in charge at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, in the latest trailer. Here is another one from Sony Pictures Television for their South African channel that contains pretty much all the same footage without the annoying, bordering on parody of movie trailer narration. Just ignore the premiere date mentioned at the end...

The preview shows Dr. Chilton being as snively as ever, dying to get inside Will's mind, while Dr. Du Maurier seems to be coming to our trapped, but now clear headed hero's aid. Cynthia Nixon's Kade Prurnell has probably the biggest arc of all the new characters coming to Hannibal, overseeing the investigation into any oversights concerning Will's situation, however, she is hardly the most exciting. Sorry. It's just that new crime fighters are boring. Villains and canonical figures are what audiences care about! And there are a few doozies. Now I feel bad. Nixon is a doozie! She always does great work and will be a great addition to to series' rad array of female characters.

Jeremy Davies and Chris Diamantopoulos also have guest spots this season, the former playing an animal rescue worker slash suspect with the latter as his social worker who's possibly pulling the strings. But by far the most intriguing additions to Season 2 are MIchael Pitt and Katharine Isabelle. The Boardwalk Empire star is set to play the sadistic socialite Mason Verger with Isabelle as his younger sister Margot, who's forced to seek out counselling because of her brother's abuse. Can you guess who she sees for therapy?

Hannibal returns for its second season premiere, "Kaiseki," on Friday at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Created by Bryan Fuller and based on the novel 'Red Dragon' by Thomas Harris, the series stars Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas, Cynthia Nixon, Gillian Anderson and Laurence Fishburne.

Fine. Here's the premiere's fantastic cold open flash-forward fight scene even though I recommend waiting to watch it as part of the actual premiere. Who am I kidding, I didn't. Have at it...