Following the recent series finale of NBC’s cannibal-themed show Hannibal, creator Bryan Fuller and star Gillian Anderson teamed up with PETA to leave fans with a provocative postscript, just in time for Thanksgiving meal planning.
The sinister spot, available here, features Anderson’s character at Hannibal Lecter’s dinner table, where guests often unknowingly feasted on human flesh. “Eating meat? It’s a matter of taste,” she says, as the camera pans to reveal that the roasted leg on the elegant platter is her own.
The New Yorker’s TV critic wrote of Hannibal, “There are moments when one suspects the show is sponsored by PETA.”
Says Fuller: “Writing Hannibal made me realize that human beings and other animals have more similarities than differences. It had a direct impact on how I view meat and what I put in my body. Eating another sentient being is no different than eating another human being, in my mind. The trauma of Hannibal cuts both ways.”
