Hugh Dancy & Raul Esparza In NBC's HANNIBAL Debuts 4/4

Recent VENUS IN FURS lead Hugh Dancy and Broadway leading man Raul Esparza will lend their titanic theatrical talent and TV-friendly faces to collaborate on the small screen on NBC's HANNIBAL, which NBC has just announced will premiere on Thursday, April 4 at 10 PM.

HANNIBAL depicts the earlier life of famed psychiatrist and cannibal Hannibal Lector, originally played by Anthony Hopkins in the multi-Academy Award-winning feature film THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which was followed up with a sequel, HANNIBAL, and a prequel, Red Dragon, all based on the novels by Thomas Harris. Additionally, Harris most recently wrote HANNIBAL RISING, a novel depicting the childhood of the central antagonist/protagonist of the novels.

NBC's HANNIBAL TV series follows Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and his interactions with confidant/mentor Hannibal Lector (Mads Mikkelsen) and takes place a few years prior to the events in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, largely focused on the Red Dragon era years when Lector worked alongside the FBI to track the most dangerous and violent serial killers.

Esparza, who will portray the psychiatric institute's crooked quack of a captain, Dr. Chilton, joins a starry supporting cast that also includes Laurence Fishburne as Will Graham's tough-taking boss Jack Crawford and Gillian Anderson as Dr. Lector's psychiatrist (a role not represented in the novels).

HANNIBAL was created by PUSHING DAISIES mastermind Bryan Fuller and is rumoroed to feature some other DAISIES collaborators besides Esparza, as well, with roles for Ellen Greene and Molly Shannon, though their participation has not been confirmed.

More information on the upcoming series is available in the EW article here.