"Hannibal" season three returns with an Italian theme, as clued in by the title of the first episode, "Antipasto." When the show returns in 2015, Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter will mostly be apart, but actor Mads Mikkelsen wishes for a mental relationship to keep them together.
According to Carter Matt, the title reveal on Twitter was courtesy of show creator Bryan Fuller himself, who co-wrote the episode with Steve Lightfoot. Aside from the title, Carter Matt also shares that there will be a scenery change in season 3. With a "sizable time jump" from the last season, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) will continue his search for Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) in Europe.
Franchise Herald notes that in the first season, most of the food titles were French, and in the second season most were Japanese. Following this trend, it may pinpoint Dancy's search to Italy. The article also mentions Lecter running into one Italian police, Rinaldo Pazzi, who will eventually get killed, though it is not sure if he will be a new character in the show.
This change in location from Minnesota to Europe almost guarantees that Dancy and Mikkelsen's characters will be separated in the first half of the season.
When asked about it, Mikkelsen said that he will miss Dancy. "Hopefully he will crop up in either a dream or a nightmare, a mental relationship so that we can actually spend some time together again in the show," Mikkelsen added via a Digital Spy interview.
Fashion & Style mentions that at the time of the interview Mikkelsen has not yet seen the script.
Almost as controversial as the topic of "Hannibal" is the relationship of Graham and Lecter, which is called "homoerotic."
For Mikkelsen, it's a love story. In his own words: "It's a love story, and this is probably the one person for many, many years that Hannibal related so heavily to." Mikkelsen further stated that Lecter sees a younger version of himself in Graham.
Meanwhile, Fuller has a different take on it. According to Franchise Herald, Fuller said, "The homoeroticism is more me just cackling in the editing room, as opposed to something that the characters are genuinely feeling when they're in the room with one another." Fuller also noted that Graham is heterosexual.
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