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THE HANNIBAL FALE NEARLY END ON A GAY KISS, SAYS BRYAN FULLER
Bryan Fuller's Hannibal seri is nsired by some to be one of the most famo exampl of queerbag TV history, but almost gave the gay kiss we wanted and served. "I was jt followg the lead of the actors, as opposed to havg a gay agenda. The gay agenda me later.
As pictns of homosexualy have bee progrsively ls prohibed televisn and movi, portrayg timate emotnal relatnships that don't volve sex seems to have bee even more plited. Aled Hchck's 1951 film Strangers on a Tra featur a relatnship between two male characters that is parable to that between Will and Hannibal, and is wily regard as havg strong homoerotic subtext.
Yet Strangers on a Tra was ma an era where, thanks to the Hays Co, wasn't possible to have explicly gay characters Amerin films. That le clearly don't apply to Hannibal, the latt season of which saw Margot Verger and Alana Bloom get married and have a child together - so why did Fuller choose not to make Hannibal and Will's relatnship explicly homosexual?
HANNIBAL & THE GAY ELEPHANT THE ROOM
"But that do not necsarily prevent om a homoerotic subtext.
" When asked why he wanted to clu so much homoeroticism between two characters who don't and never will have a sexual relatnship, Fuller explaed that the fact that sex is not volved is what mak Will and Hannibal's teractns so tertg. There’s a scene at dner where we were tacklg the ed bay bee was so transparently homoerotic. In the real world, some straight men attempt to navigate the boundari of iendship wh other men by addg the veat "no homo" to exprsns of affectn, appreciatn of male bety, or any other statement that might be terpreted as havg gay nnotatns.
No homo, " lacks a certa amount of gravas. The iendship between Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggs the Lord of the Rgs trilogy is, along wh Hannibal, one of relatively few morn attempts to portray tensely emotnal male homosocial relatnships wh absolute scery, and the number of gay jok ma about Frodo and Sam the wake of the films' release speaks to the fact that dienc weren't (and still aren't) que fortable watchg straight male characters get emotnally timate wh one another. Depictns of homosexualy may have bee more acceptable mastream cema and TV, but homophobia still exists many pervasive and sid ways - one of which is the cultural need to mata a strong dividg le between heterosexualy and homosexualy.