Ok, this is a odd crossover Hannibal and Wonderfalls: http://tvline.com/2012/09/27/chelan-simmons-hannibal/
^So if this is true, presumably this series won't be set within the movie continuity? Or would this character have been kicking around in the 1970s or 80s?!
Huh. NBC may be overestmating the notoriety of the "Hannibal" name on its own. The character never made it into pop culture awareness except through Silence of the Lambs. The spinoff movies are certainly out of popular awareness by now, if they ever broke through beyond a niche audince to begin with. So without Jodie Foster or at least some similar character (Caroline Dhavernas?) will the public make the connection solely by that poster (or ads etc based on it?) All that poster says to me is, it's a crime show with three male characters. Silence of the Lambs is a story focused on a young woman and an older man. Hannibal is that guy with the elephants.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=96391 Here are 8 photos, some reasonably graphic. The clothes and cars would seem to suggest that, like the Psycho prequel, it's not going to be set in the timeline of the source material (which would have put this in the 1970s or 1980s, Psycho in the 1950s) but in the modern day.
This could very easily be crap. But given the acting talent involved, I am allowing myself a modest amount of hope.
This is how I'm feeling about the series, too. I just don't see the need for this. I certainly get the reason. I just don't see the need, and I'm honestly not that excited about this.