The creator of Hannibal is envisioning a dream project that would star none other than Zendaya.
Series creator Bryan Fuller revealed in an interview with ScreenRant that his “dream project” would see the Challengers star in the leading role of Clarice Starling opposite Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter.
“My dream project is to do a limited series of Silence of the Lambs with Mads and Zendaya as Clarice Starling,” he said. “If I could put anything out into the universe, I would put that into the universe.”
Both roles of Clarice and Hannibal were originated by Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, respectively, in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1988 book of the same name.
The movie was a major winner at the 1992 Oscars, earning both Foster and Hopkins the Academy Awards for best leading actress and actor. Silence of the Lambs also won best picture, best director for Demme and best adapted screenplay.
Zendaya has quite a few projects in the works, and is gearing up for quite a stacked 2026 slate of releases. She’ll next be seen in the highly anticipated third season of Euphoria, the third Dune installment, Christopher Nolan’s next feature The Odyssey and the fourth Tom Holland-led Spider-Man film, entitled Brand New Day.
Ridley Scott’s 2001 Hannibal film served as a sequel to the original Demme-directed movie. Hopkins returned to reprise his role while Julianne Moore joined to play Clarice. In Fuller’s 2013 Hannibal TV series, Mikkelsen took on the titular part while Clarice was absent from the storyline.
Fuller recently made his directorial debut with his new thriller Dust Bunny at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.