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Hannibal Season 2 Michael Pitt is "the Joker to Lecter's Batman" - SciFiNow

Hannibal Season 2 Michael Pitt is “the Joker to Lecter’s Batman”

Bryan Fuller on the “haute creep pimp quality” of Michael Pitt’s Mason Verger in Hannibal Season 2

The cast of Hannibal Season 1
The cast of Hannibal Season 1

One of the great casting coups of Hannibal Season 2 is Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Pitt as Mason Verger, and Bryan Fuller tells SciFiNow that he can’t wait for Fannibals to see him.

“I’m eager for people to take a peek at what he does because I think it will be certainly iconic in the Thomas Harris legacy of these characters,” he tells us.

Mason Verger is the wealthy psychopath previously played by Gary Oldman in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, and Fuller tells us that Pitt’s take will see Dr Lecter pushed to his limit.

“The scenes with Michael Pitt and Mads Mikkelsen have been so much fun to cut because we’ve always talked about how Mason Verger has to be a bit of the Joker to Hannibal’s Batman and they have  to have a dynamic of ‘Here’s this guy who’s in therapy with Hannibal Lecter, but he clearly has no taste for him,'” he tells us.

Michael Pitt in Michael Haneke's Funny Games US
Michael Pitt in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games US

“Well, he does, but he just thinks he’s an atrocious human being, and the last episode of the Verger arc is one of the darkest comedies that we’ve done on the show.”

“Michael Pitt brings such a pimp quality to Mason Verger because the first time you see him he’s dressed in this fantastic fur coat and there’s a little bit of The Great Gatsby meets Scott Disick, so he’s fantastically styled and Michael had so much fun with the role, it’s been delightful to cut him because he is trying everything and really embracing the kind of haute creep capacity of this character, and it’s really exciting.”

Hannibal Season Two begins on 6 May on Sky Living. You can read our five-star review of Hannibal Season One here, and you can buy Hannibal Season One on Blu-ray for £23 at Amazon.co.uk.