Michael Pitt — the former Boardwalk Empire star who may or may not be a huge tool, depending on how you feel about anonymous reports from sets he’s worked on — has been cast in a “major role” in NBC’s Hannibal. According to Entertainment Weekly, he will play Mason Verger, “an unstable wealthy patient” who begins “a dangerous cat-and-mouse game” with Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Here’s a little more background:
The Mason Verger role will be introduced late in the upcoming second season, which finds FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) in prison, falsely convicted for Lecter’s crimes, while the doctor advises the agency on cases. Gary Oldman previously played an older version of Mason Verger in the 2001 Hannibal film, which is based on Thomas Harris’ Hannibal novel. NBC’s Hannibal timeline precedes the events in the film and is also set before the events in Thomas’ Red Dragon so this is Mason how we’ve never seen him before.
Now, I don’t want to speculate too much here or be accused of trying to spoil anything, but I will say this: if you get into “a dangerous cat-and-mouse game” with a genius serial killer whose last name is the title of the very successful show you’re appearing on, your days among the living on that particular fictional Earth are probably numbered. I know, I’m really going out on a limb here. But those are just the bold, piping hot takes you should expect from me. After all, they don’t call me The Bad Boy of TV Blogging for nothing*.
* They do not call me The Bad Boy of TV Blogging
Source: EW
