Hannibal is one of the best shows on TV that not enough people are watching. It is darker than pretty much anything that has ever been on television before, but the amazing stories and the unique way they are told has garnered a truly fanatical fan base. At today’s panel were Caroline Dhavernas, Scott Thompson, Aaron Abrams, Director David Slade, Executive Producers Steven Lightfoot and Martha De Laurentiis – and surprise guest Raul Esparza!

There was a lot of great, and some sad information given out in the panel today. First… Raul’s Dr Chilton will be back next season, despite having been shot in the face in this season’s finale.

We also learned that Abigail Hobbes would be returning and that several new characters from the books including: Rinaldo Pazzi, Lady Murasaki, Cordell, and Francis Dollarhyde.

Francis Dollarhyde, as you may remember is the big bad in Red Dragon, which is exactly the story that they will be leading into by the end of this season.

On a much sadder note, it appears that they own the rights to material from all of the books except Silence of the Lambs. They are hoping to rectify that soon, but it sounds like there’s some bad blood between studios and it could turn into a bit of a pissing match. However, until that happens, we won’t be seeing Agent Clarice Starling anytime soon.

However, we will see the season opener featuring Hannibal and Gillian Anderson’s Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier in Italy together a year after the events of the season finale. We won’t get a full understanding about what happened after this past season’s finale until episode 4.