‘Hannibal’ Season 3 Premiere Date Announced

Hannibal season 3's premiere will air on Thursday, June 4, at the 10:00 pm time slot according to NBC. Low ratings notwithstanding, the show has been renewed for a third season. 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.

Beginning this third season, the show's cast will also include Richard Armitage as Francis Dolarhyde, Joe Anderson as Mason Verger, Rutina Wesley as the blind Reba McClane, Zachary Quinto as another serial-killer patient of Dr. Maurier, and Tao Okamoto as Lady Murasaki's (Lecter's Japanese aunt) handmaid Chiyoh.

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.