Hannibal Rising was a prequel detailing the character's origin and how he became a cannibal, but it was a critical and financial disappointment. The NBC series acted as a reimagining of the books, with a focus put on the complex relationship between troubled FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and his therapist/secret serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).
Silence Of The Lambs. Reviews for the sequel series have been mixed thus far, and for legal reasons, the character of Hannibal can never appear.
One character from the novels who didn't appear in the Hannibal series is the title character's uncle Count Robert Lecter, who first appeared in Hannibal Rising. While Robert in the novel is short-lived and ultimately doesn't play a major role, showrunner Bryan Fuller had big plans for the Count on Hannibal. In fact, he first offered the role to David Bowie during the second season, who expressed interest.
Fuller recalls that the production reached out to Bowie about playing Count Robert several times on Hannibal, with the musician responding he was busy working on music but also asking they reach out again to check his schedule in the future. With the singer's ing in 2016, Fuller realized in retrospect that Bowie was sick when the role was being offered. The showrunner wanted Bowie because when he was trying to envision someone as cool as Mads Mikkelsen, the singer was the person who immediately came to mind.
While the exact plan for Uncle Robert's role on Hannibal has yet to be revealed, Fuller did say that much of the character's function in season 3 was eventually ed to Tao Okamoto's Chiyoh. In the book, Chiyoh was the maid to Robert and his wife Murasaki, and in the show, Will finds her at the old Lecter estate in Lithuania, imprisoning the man who apparently killed Hannibal's sister. She helps fill Will in on some of Hannibal's past and later acts as something of a protector to Hannibal.
Fuller hinted in a 2015 interview with Hannibal season 3 post-credit scene. If so, this could imply that Robert was also into cannibalism, and may have even been a mentor to Hannibal. While it would have been fantastic to see David Bowie on the series, tragically, it wasn't meant to be.