The ‘Hannibal’ Gag Reel Released At Comic Con Is Amazingly, Unexpectedly Adorable

Bryan Fuller and the cast of NBC’s Hannibal made their first appearance at Comic-Con this year after getting a late second season renewal. In reading over the coverage, there’s not a lot of remarkable insights, especially if you already know Bryan Fuller’s brilliant seven-season plan for the series. The cast, however, was unexpectedly charming, especially for a show that can best be described as bleak, grim, brutal, and clinically gory (also, outstanding). Fuller did note that he loved that fans have dubbed the stag on the show — a Freudian/Jungian reference — as “Swiggity-Swag the Nightmare Stag,” and he joked that there may be some sexual chemistry between Will and Hannibal.

The best thing to come out of it, however, was the unexpectedly adorable gag reel. It’s unexpected mostly because we’re not used to seeing these actors break from the oppressively grim characters, so it’s an unusually fun sight to see Mads Mikkelsen smile or, hilariously, Hugh Dancy call a vegetarian a “whore.” It’s good stuff, and a nice reminder that there are actual people (one of whom used to be a ballet dancer) with actual senses of humor behind those characters.

×