Hannibal creator wants to bring back the cult series for a Silence of the Lambs sequel season – and cast Zendaya as Clarice Starling

Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller says it's his "dream" to bring the horror series back for a Silence of the Lambs-themed sequel season, with a Marvel star stepping into Jodie Foster's iconic role.

In a new interview with Screen Rant, the writer-producer revealed that he'd love to see Zendaya as FBI Academy student Clarice Starling – and go toe-to-toe with Mads Mikkelsen's flesh-munching psychiatrist.

"If I could put anything out into the universe, I would put that into the universe," Fuller confessed, and now that he's put the idea in our heads, we echo the sentiment.

Cancelled in 2015, Hannibal never made it to the Silence of the Lambs era, with its third season concluding with Mr. Lecter evading the authorities thanks to the help of FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). Instead, the final chapter loosely adapted Thomas Harris's Red Dragon, a prequel novel set five years before the events of 1988's Silence of the Lambs.

In the book and Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winning adaptation from the early 1990s, Clarice is tasked with seeking the help of an incarcerated Hannibal, in the hopes that he'll help her catch a woman-killer known as "Buffalo Bill".

When asked about the possibility of a revival, Fuller also told Screen Rant: "It's complicated now because [producer] Martha De Laurentiis died and she had a certain section of the rights, and now, Thomas Harris is trying to get the rights all under one umbrella. And I think that's going to take a couple of years of straightening out. But the entire cast wants to come back: Mads, Hugh, Lawrence, Katie, Caroline – like everybody’s in. It's just a matter of: Will the rights be able to be figured out again?"

For more, check out our guide to the most exciting new TV shows heading our way.