Hannibal: Why Gillian Anderson’s Dr. Maurier was on the airplane with Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal will be the hinge in Antiporda

NBC's Hannibal, low ratings notwithstanding, has been renewed for a third season. The show is expected to premier sometime soon this year. In fact the titles for the first three episodes have already been announced. They are: Antipasto, Primavera, and Secondo.

Developed for the TV series by Bryan Fuller based on Thomas Harris' Red Dragon novel, Hannibal follows the strange but intimate relationship that developed between FBI special investigator and criminal profiler Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy) and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen), a brilliant forensic psychiatrist and expert culinarian who happens to be also a cannibalistic serial killer.

Others in the cast include Caroline Dhavernas as Dr. Alana Bloom, a psychiatry professor and consultant profiler for the FBI who has professional relationships with both Graham and Lecter; Lawrence Fishburne as Graham's boss special agent-in-charge Jack Crawford; Hettienne Park as special agent Beverly Katz, a crime scene investigator specializing in fiber analysis; Scott Thompson as special agent Jimmy Price, a crime scene investigator specializing in latent fingerprints; Aaron Abrams as special agent Brian Zeller, a crime scene investigator; and Gillian Anderson as Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Lecter's mysterious psychotherapist.

Season 2 ended its run with an explosive finale that has Dhavernas' Alana being hurled out a window by Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl), Mikkelson's Hannibal driving a knife into Dancy's Will, and Fishburne's Crawford bleeding profusely from the wound on his slashed throat. It also has a post-closing credits scene of Hannibal sipping champagne on an airplane alongside his therapist Bedelia (Anderson) with piano music playing in the background.

In an interview with TVLine, Bruno Fuller revealed that Season 2's post-closing credits scene will Season 3's opening scene. He said: "This is the end of Season 2, and essentially, after credits, that scene on the airplane is the first scene of Season 3. And the fun thing about the Season 3 opener is that we're going to get into the specifics of exactly why Bedelia is in that chair, how she came to be in that chair, how it was actually an intriguing, smart decision for her, as opposed to Hannibal Lecter hijacking her and kidnapping her. I think she is absolutely where she has chosen to be, and how she made that choice is the hinge of Episode 1, Season 3."