Back in February, we reported that NBC made the bold decision to hand out a 13-episode order for Hannibal, without seeing a pilot episode. Series creator Bryan Fuller recently revealed that he pitched a seven-season plan to the network.

"Doing a cable model on network television gives us the opportunity not to dally in our storytelling because we have a lot of real estate to cover. I pitched a seven-season arc including stories from various [Thomas Harris] books."

The show will focus on the relationship between Hannibal Lecter and FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). Bryan Fuller also said that, since the story takes place before his eventual incarceration, the cannibalistic serial killer is seen in a much better mood.

"It's before he was incarcerated, so he's more of a peacock. There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He's not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn't know who he was, they wouldn't see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock's principle of suspense - show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it's going to go boom. So the audience knows who Hannibal is so we don't have to overplay his villainy. We get to subvert his legacy and give the audience twists and turns."

The series creator also likened this series to a love story between Lecter and Graham, as we will discover how similar both characters really are.

"It really is a love story, for lack of a better description, between these two characters. As Hannibal has said [to Graham] in a couple of the movies, 'You're a lot more like me than you realize.' We'll get to the bottom of exactly what that means over the course of the first two seasons. But we're taking our sweet precious time."

We reported last month that David Slade will direct the pilot episode. It isn't known when production will start on the pilot, or when NBC may debut the series.