First announced last month, NBC is moving ahead with a 13-episode season of "Hannibal," based on the iconic Thomas Harris serial killer character, Hannibal Lecter. Today, EW spoke with showrunner Bryan Fuller about his take on the project, which has been mapped out for a potential seven-season run, re-adapting Harris' Lecter novels, which include Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising.

"There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal," Fuller explains of the yet-to-be-cast Lecter. "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."

Describing the series as a sort of "love story" between Lecter and FBI Agent Will Graham (to be played by Hugh Dancy), Fuller explains that he's also swapped the genders of a few character including Dr. Alan (now Alana) Bloom and Freddy (now Fredricka) Lounds.