The first full trailer for the Silence of the Lambs spinoff TV series is finally here. Titled Clarice, the show will follow FBI agent Clarice Starling one year after the events of the original film, when she first encountered Hannibal Lecter.
The trailer sees Starling – played by The Originals’ and Pretty Little Liars’ Rebecca Breeds – return to work after earning a “public reputation for hunting monsters”. In a classic detective series trope, Starling is patronised by her male boss, who tells her his team don’t work on instinct, but “evidence”. That won’t stop Starling, though, who’s there to single handedly catch serial murderers and sexual predators.
Set to premiere on CBS next month, Clarice was first announced in January last year, with Alex Kurtzman on board as a producer and Jenny Lumet as a writer. A teaser for the series was released in December.
Originally lifted from Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel, The Silence of the Lambs, Starling was played by Jodie Foster in the iconic 1991 film of the same name – a performance that one her an Oscar. In the 2001 film adaptation of Harris’ follow-up novel, Hannibal, Starling was portrayed by Julianne Moore.
Due to a legal issue about rights ownership, Clarice has been forced to omit any mention of Hannibal Lecter – played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film – as well as any previous plots involving the character. “I’m still trying to understand how the rights are divided,” Kurtzman told Entertainment Weekly. “But it’s been quite liberating because we have no interest in writing about Hannibal – not because we didn’t love the films and the show, but because it was done so well by so many people that it didn’t feel fresh for us.”
Clarice is set to debut on CBS on February 11. Watch the new trailer below.