The NBC Series, "Hannibal" has an impressive following on social media, and ratings for its second season have been solid, garnering an average of 3.9 million viewers tuning in every Friday night, a difficult time spot, meaning that seaon 3 is a definite yes from NBC

According to show-runner Bryan Fuller, "Hannibal" won't get into "the literature" until Season 4, which will cover the events of "Red Dragon." This means that Season 3 will be a prequel to the books and therefore have a lot of freedom to play around with. Season 5, meanwhile, will move into the 'Silence of the Lambs' era, but unlike the books, will continue to follow Will Graham's story, as well as Hannibal's.

"Absolutely, absolutely, and we will. We'll definitely be seeing Murasaki. We're hoping to see Mason Verger again this season. We are developing the Francis Dolarhyde story so that's a very exciting thing for me because Red Dragon is my introduction into the Thomas Harris world," said Fuller.

When probed about when Clarice Starling or Buffalo Bill would be cast, Fuller admitted that he and the rest of the team were still working on securing the rights to use the characters in the series. MGM currently owns the rights to both characters.

Laurence Fishburne confirms his filming schedule with Zap2it on Tuesday after he revealed earlier in the day that he will be splitting his time between his new ABC comedy  "Black-ish" and "Hannibal" in the 2014-15 season.

"It won't be a thing where I have to travel that much. I'll do the 'Black-ish' work at the beginning of the season in August/September, and then I think the 'Hannibal' season begins at some time in October, and I'll just go and do that," Fishburne says at ABC's summer TV press tour party. "['Hannibal' creator Bryan Fuller] knows what my schedule is and he knows what my commitments are, and so he's been kind enough to accommodate them."

Three main characters were on the brink of death in the "Hannibal" Season 2 finale, with Crawford being one of them. Fishburne's commitment to Season 3 proves that Jack "will be back," but he expects his continued presence on the show through future seasons isn't contingent on Jack's story arc in the Thomas Harris novels that the NBC drama is based on.

Fishburne has a broad sense of what the new season will be, and teases, "It will be very different, and it will be very dark."

"I just know that Bryan is working on something, and he's got some ideas. Generally speaking, I trust him to do something and to come up with something really interesting," Fishburne says of Fuller. "Bryan's a genius. 'Pushing Daisies' was some of the smartest stuff I'd ever seen on television."

"Hannibal" had no Emmy nominations for the 2014 awards show, but Fishburne says the snub isn't getting anyone on the "Hannibal" team down.

"I'm very happy, because our show is beautiful. It's well-written, it's well-acted. The Emmys are wonderful. We didn't get nominated. It's not the end of the world, it just didn't happen," he says. "That's not going to stop us from doing what we do, and trying to make the best shows we can."

"Hannibal" Season 3 has a release date of late 2014 or in the first half of 2015.