Many of us were saddened when it was announced that the much-acclaimed Hannibal had been criminally cancelled after just three seasons, but now star Mads Mikkelsen has talked about how the show could well return down the line.

According to Mikkelsen, he believes that Hannibal could easily return in a few years due to the passion of creator Bryan Fuller and the show’s cast. Speaking to The Express about the chances of the show returning, the actor explained, “It all depends on Bryan. He is the key, the base, the heart. We will wait and see what happens next in his career. But we all know that we can easily pick this up in two or three years, there are breaks in the stories. We could pick it up, say, four years later. If Bryan was up for it, we will all go for it.”

When asked whether he thinks Fuller would indeed be keen to bring the show back, Mikkelsen teased, “He loved it. It was his baby. Let’s wait and see.”

Discussing the surprising cancellation of the show, the 50-year-old Danish actor said, “We are all angry. We were pissed. It’s madness. And Season 4 was actually the one we thought we’d definitely get. Seasons 2 and 3 were on the verge. We didn’t know whether Hannibal would be renewed. But by the time we got to Season 4 we thought it was a definite. We were very surprised at the decision. We were happy to be able to do it for as long as we did. However, we felt there were more stories. We thought we ended the show in a great way, but we had more to tell.”

Interestingly, the plan for the fourth season was to do a take on the infamous The Silence of the Lambs.

Whether we see Hannibal return at some point in the future, we’ll have to wait and see, but at least Mads Mikkelsen has faith in the show being back within the next few years. In the meantime, Bryan Fuller is working on CBS’ new Star Trek series and Starz’s American Gods.