HOBBIT Star Richard Armitage Joins NBC's HANNIBAL as Dolarhyde

 

"I am the Dragon. And you call me insane. You are privy to a great becoming, but you recognize nothing. To me, you are a slug in the sun. You are an ant in the afterbirth. It is your nature to do one thing correctly. Before me, you rightly tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. YOU OWE ME AWE!"

It appears the past three years of fighting dragons has cause Thorin Oakenshield to become one himself, as he is now set to join NBC's dark modern fantasy/crime-drama HANNIBAL as Francis Dolarhyde aka "The Tooth Fairy", for Season 3- which will apparently dive into Will Graham's first "big" case. 

Most well known as being portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Brett Ratner's 2002 film Red Dragon, the hulking and intimidating 6'2 Armitage will fill the mentally unstable shoes of Dolarhyde perfectly.
The decision also keeps in tune with the show's somewhat unconventional casting choices up until now.

Armitage’s gig is slated to last six episodes.

Last month, the role of sociopathic Mason Verger was recast — with Joe Anderson (The Divide) stepping in for Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire). Gillian Anderson was also upgraded to series regular as the mysterious Bedelia du Maurier in advance ofHannibal‘s third season.

Armitage will be joining Joe Anderson (replacing Michael Pitt) as Mason Verger, meaning Hannibal season 3 will not be lacking for menacing antagonists for Will Graham to suffer through.

We know from San Diego Comic Con 2015 that Dolarhyde's role will play out into the "Red Dragon" arch of Season 4, which will see us soon potentially enter some Silence of the Lambs Territory:

New characters, from the Thomas Harris book universe, are headed our way. Episode 2 will introduce Inspector Pazzi, who Giancarlo Giannini played in the movie Hannibal. Episode 3 will bring in Lady Murasaki from Hannibal Rising. And Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes in the movie Red Dragon) will be brought in during Episode 8. And then he'll take the show into the "Red Dragon" portion of the series, which will play out in Season 4.

"I think Murasaki's going to kick all sorts of ass," said Fuller.

The panel went on to discuss the future of the series, briefly:

Producer Martha De Laurentiis then spoke about the course of the show, which will take us through a mashup of the books Hannibal and Hannibal Rising next season, and then Red Dragon in Season 4. And then, hopefully, Season 5 will go into Silence of the Lambs. If MGM, who owns the rights to that book (meaning they own Clarice Starling), is willing to play ball. If not then, Fuller and producer/writer Steven Lightfoot will "take what has been laid out for us all to mine and then make our own version of what that is," De Laurentiis said. "And it could even be more exciting."

HANNIBAL, loosely adapted from the Thomas Harris novels of the same character, first premiered in the Spring of 2013 to some rocky ratings but overwhelming critical acclaim before taking off and finding it's footing through it's passionate fanbase, strong social media prescence, and critical accolades. 

Dr. Lecter will return to NBC this Spring.