Will Hannibal‘s Will Graham eventually find love, or is he destined to go stag forever?
While the question is moot in the short run – at the moment, the guy’s a little busy recovering from brain-cooking encephalitis and being manipulated by a serial killer – it’s certainly something star Hugh Dancy is considering as his gory NBC drama reaches the end of its freshman season.

Can Dancy’s tormented profiler ever be a good, healthy match for Caroline Dhavernas‘ Alana? Here, the British actor gives TVLine his thoughts on the more-than-friendly pair and hints at what Dr. Lecter’s cooking up in the Season 1 finale (which airs Thursday, June 20 at 10/9c) and beyond.

TVLINE | What can you tease about the Will/Alana relationship in upcoming episodes? She’s repeatedly said they can’t have a romantic relationship, but they seem drawn to each other regardless.
Put it this way: Neither of us die this season. So there’s always a future. It was always interesting to me to imagine how the hell someone like Will Graham would have any kind of romantic life. That’s what we were scratching away [at]… Without giving too much away about how this season ends, the whole dynamic is going to be shifted next season. It’ll be interesting to see.

TVLINE | Will your character find out this season that Hannibal lied to him about the encephalitis? Will Will have any lasting effects from the illness?
I can’t tell you that! …There was a guy who was a profiler for the FBI, who was one of the people that [The Silence of the Lambs author] Thomas Harris talked to and based my character on, and also Jack’s character. And he did almost die of encephalitis. In the mind of [Hannibal creator] Bryan Fuller, that was absorbed and filtered and came out as what you see.

TVLINE | What can you tell us about this season’s finale?
It all comes to a head. We’re not going to leave you hanging.

TVLINE | Bryan Fuller has said next season will see the break-up of Will and Hannibal’s bromance.
[Laughs] Did he say that? It’s safe to say, we’re getting into that territory… Will is meant to be the most intelligent guy on the Earth and the best at his job. But he’s suffering. He hasn’t got all the cards in his hand. Whether that happens this season or next season, I don’t want to be too specific. But we’ll get there.

TVLINE | Will Will get a lot worse before he gets better?
[Laughs] Yes. He gets worse before he gets better.

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