I'm wondering - and I'll concede that you might have no idea either - if Bryan and Mads discussed Hannibal being in love with Will from the very start or whether it's a thing that developed organically over the years. Every time the relationship came up at Q&A's, Hugh has always been adamant that it was platonic. I'm wondering if Mads knew more than Hugh...
I don’t think Hugh means they aren’t in love when he says platonic I just think he means that they don’t fuck.
I don’t know whether that’s morally right or wrong or whatever anymore. But he doesn’t think that Hannibal’s and Will’s relationship isn’t very profound and doesn’t runs deep. Hugh is super clued up on that and he gets it and he portrays it beautifully and accurately in that respect. I see a reluctant but inescapable pull towards the side of the line Hannibal is on when I watch his performance I don’t see platonic as in ‘we’re friends and we don’t have those sorts of feelings for one another.’
But erm, Bryan has always said from the start that Hannibal as a TV show was designed to elaborate on what he thought to be a missing piece of the Harris puzzle which was a relationship between Hannibal and Will, in that context it was always the plan and it is the point of the show. And as you watch the show and then, go back and watch the movies or read the books, the hole of the plot there is GLARING. It is so obvious there must be more too it.
I think all that were involved saw it as a narrative originally, there was a greater story to it, but that could have been anything.
But then I really do think fan, not necessarily involvement but acceptance of Hannibal and Will as having the profound connection made the journey that the rest of the story should take much clearer.
To me, the story line with Clarice that occurs in the books, it fits Will better in the way that they’ve written Will in the show.
Whether the pieces fell together conveniently or whether they were hard fought in the writers room, I’m not sure. I wasn’t there. But I think that they’re only willing to go as far as they have with it and be so open in that respect because it’s what the fans wanted, and what the fans told bryan they were prepared to accept. It’s a story they wanted to be told.
In this sense I think yes, exploring Hannibal and Will more was the intention but the openess they’ve gone about this couldn’t have been achieved without fan acceptance and was therefore a later development.
That’s my guess anyway. But yeah, I think Hugh was as involved as Mads but when he says platonic he might not be conveying what he wants to convey.
Hope that helps ^_^
