Photo Credit: NBC
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
We’ve known since it was announced last summer at San Diego Comic-Con that Dr. Chilton (Raul Esparza) miraculously survived being shot in the face and would be returning for season 3 — and with a vengeance. Literally.
It was announced today that Chilton will be making his big return in episode 4 of the new season, with the official synopsis reading, “Having survived a gunshot, Dr. Fredrick Chilton focuses on using Will as bait to catch Hannibal.”
Oh, dear. I totally get the guy needing some retribution for the hell Lecter has put him through, but does Chilton stand even a remote chance at hunting down and cornering the show’s evasive cannibalistic killer who has eluded the authorities for no telling how long? I found Dr. Chilton annoying as hell at the beginning of the series, but he has really grown on me in season 2, and so, I truly hope he doesn’t cause any more trouble (or worse!) for himself by playing chicken with Hannibal. Unfortunately, when I talked with the series Executive Producer and Creator Bryan Fuller last week, he hinted that Chilton’s long streak of bad luck will continue into the new season, with much more pain and misery coming his way. “Dr. Chilton is reintroduced in Episode 4, and he has a very big role in that episode. One of the things that was interesting in talking about how Chilton would be changed is we saw him in the first season being gutted by Eddie Izzard’s character. And in the second season, he was shot in the face by Anna Chlumsky’s character. So he’s a bit of arcane for this series that we do something absolutely horrible to Dr. Chilton in every season. And what happens to him in this season is probably the most horrible,” Fuller explained.
“But the fun of it in doing it with that character is that Raúl Esparza brings such a different energy to the show, a vital energy to the show where he understands his role as the comic relief in this world and provides a perspective of the madness that is grounded at the same time as witty. And so we do some very fun things with Dr. Chilton this season. And Will is always cracking the stage up with his antics. The blooper reel for this season is, he definitely is the highlight of that. And so, yes, he comes back in and plays a pivotal role in both chapters, the first chapter and the second chapter. And we understand, we will see very clearly how he managed to survive those things, so we don’t just sort of magically have him show up and everything is fine. We see exactly what happened from a bullet’s point of view and how he survived.”
I personally cannot wait for this episode, and I have a feeling it will turn out to be one of my favorites of the season. Even though things don’t look good for Chilton and his long-term plan of revenge, the guy has become one of my favorite characters, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun (not to mention hilarious!) watching him try.
The season 3 premiere of Hannibal airs tomorrow night at 10/9c on NBC.
You can also check out the full interview with Bryan Fuller by clicking here.
