NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ season 3 spoilers: Joe Anderson replacing Michael Pitt

There’s some very surprising news that came out earlier today regarding “Hannibal,” and admittedly, we have bittersweet emotions over it.

According to a new report from TVLine, Michael Pitt is not returning to the NBC show for its third season as Mason Verger, a man who at one point was actually feeding part of his face to Will Graham’s dogs. He will be replaced by “The River” star Joe Anderson. The report claims that the decision to leave was Pitt’s, and of course we cannot help but wonder if scheduling for him was a factor.

The hard part of this news is seeing the “Boardwalk Empire” alum go. He was both fantastic and terrifying every time that we saw him, and he obviously had a big presence any time that he was on the screen.

With that being said, we have a ton of confidence in Anderson. We’ve been a fan of his work for some time, and with the physical change to Mason courtesy of Hannibal’s “work,” the change in actors is probably not going to be as noticeable as we’ve seen with other shows. Ultimately, we don’t expect another Daario – “Game of Thrones” conflict to arise here, where we had two different actors playing the same role in entirely separate ways.

The new season of “Hannibal” will repeat next year, and we expect there to be a variety of stories to incorporate Verger at some point. With that being said, the season will begin with Will overseas, working to track down Hannibal after his speedy departure.

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