Richard Armitage To Play the 'Red Dragon' in Season 3 of 'Hannibal'

Although NBC's Hannibal looks like it might not be returning for a fourth season, if the show continues there is a hope of getting Ellen Page on board to play Clarice Starling. The upcoming season three episodes are supposed to be extremely exciting, especially in regards to the Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. "Red Dragon" character played by Richard Armitage.

There will be six episodes featuring this character and according to The Playlist. "There were two movies that spent about 90 minutes on that story, but we have six episodes and the book is incredibly detailed," Armitage said at Comic-Con (via Colider). "So we get to look at the back story and open up that story to include his innocence with his darkness. His story isn't told in a linear way. You learn of his crimes first, and then retrace where they came from." It's exciting to know that the true identity that is gone into great depth in Thomas Harris's books will be more delved into on the show.

The show has already been following the character of Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) who interacts with the Red Dragon in the books, and due to the fact that Dolarhyde comes into play, Graham will have to consult Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) again. This will create an awesomely new dynamic for the show and will change the relationship between many of the characters.

The five-minute trailer aired at Comic-Con this year and it's clear that with this new story line the show can wrap up quite nicely and come to a strong ending. However, there are also always in hopes for a fourth season, so the storyline will hopefully allow the show to continue as well. The future of the show is up in the air even though both Netflix and Amazon rejected the rights to an agreement for Hannibal streaming. Producer Martha Di Laurentiis holds all rights to the show and wants to keep it alive even though she has been approached by a number of studios with offers of making another reboot of the Thomas Harris stories following the Hannibal Lecter character.

Tune in and catch up on Hannibal Thursday nights on NBC and check out the new five-minute trailer here.