The second season of Hannibal arrives on NBC at the end of the month and Entertainment Weekly have confirmed that Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire) has been added to the cast in a prominent role.

Michael Pitt will be playing Mason Verger, a very wealthy but highly volatile patient of Dr Lecter’s who starts playing a deadly game with his murderous therapist. The character was previously played by Gary Oldman (under heavy prosthetics) in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, this version of Verger was older and severely disfigured thanks to Dr Lecter’s handy work. This will be the first time we’ve seen Verger as a younger man and as the events of the series take place before Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal (the movie), this gives Bryan Fuller and his creative team plenty of room to widen the mythology.

Verger will debut towards the end of the second run although his presence will be woven into the overall season, Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) has already been cast as his sister Margo who will feature in multiple episodes. The gory and psychological tone of season one might have frightened off some viewers, once it gets going Hannibal turned out to be a formidable and uncompromising series powered by a knock out performance from Mads Mikkelsen as the infamous Dr. Lecter.

Amazon Prime are currently allowing their customers to watch the complete first season for free, so if you are signed up to the service you have just under a month to enjoy all 13 episodes ahead of the launch of season two. 

Hannibal is back on NBC February 28 in the US and will be broadcast on Sky Living in the UK.