10 Great Horror TV Shows Cancelled Too Soon

Hannibal Lecter is an icon of the page and screen, having appeared in numerous terrifying incarnations for the past 44 years. The gentleman cannibal has primarily been explored in the movies with Anthony Hopkins in the role - a role that made him a global name - and while nobody would have expected another actor could take up the gauntlet, Mads Mikkelsen stepped into the part for TV, and promptly disappeared. 

Bryan Fuller's Hannibal puts Mikkelsen into action as a pre-incarceration incarnation of Lecter, working as a doctor of forensic psychology for the FBI. Manipulating the Bureau from within, while quietly killing, torturing and eating as the Chesapeake Ripper, under cover of jurisdiction. What sets it apart from contemporaries like Dexter is its psychological depth and consistently dastardly tone, forgoing a lot of the jocular humour other similar shows rely on to balance their kills. 

The show scored highly with audiences and critics across its three seasons, but ratings gradually declined and it was too costly a show to keep going on good will and happy customers alone. NBC scrapped the iconic series and left us with a bit of a cliffhanger and an incomplete arc to boot. At least we can sleep safe in the knowledge that the character lives on in other media.