'Hannibal' Renewed For Third Season; 'The Goldbergs' Also Coming Back [Updated]

Two very different shows with geek appeal are coming back for another season. NBC has just renewed Hannibal, which brings us one step closer to the fulfillment of producer Bryan Fuller's vision of a seven-season run. And The Goldbergs got the nod for a second season from ABC.

But all isn't well everywhere. In addition to axing Community, NBC has killed off Revolution, and the future of Parenthood and Dracula is currently uncertain.

Update: Dracula has officially been canceled. Details below.

First up: Hannibal, Bryan Fuller's re-imagining of the Thomas Harris characters introduced in novels such as Red Dragon and The Silence of the LambsMads Mikkelsen stars as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and Hugh Dancy plays FBI special investigator Will Graham as the show explores the era before the Thomas Harris novels. (For now.)

The show has been performing strongly enough that this third-season pickup took place earlier in the year than its first renewal did. That's a sign of good confidence for the show. Now let's see if it stays in the tough 10pm Friday time slot where it has had a home for two years. Ratings for the show aren't huge, but it's a big DVR watch (see also: that timeslot) and it's a cheaper proposition than many other similar shows.

What will the new Hannibal season be? We don't know much, but we do know that it is likely to be the last of the fully original material. As Fuller said a while ago:

...Well, when you get into Season Four, you get into the literature. And so Season Four would be Red Dragon, Season Five would be the The Silence of the Lambs era, Season Six would be the Hannibal era, and then Season Seven would be a resolve to the ending of that book.

Then there's The Goldbergs, the '80s-set comedy, which has been given a second season. Even better for the series, it might get a better timeslot. While the show has been in the 9pm slot on Tuesdays, Deadline says it might be given a better slot for season two, "possibly Wednesday 8:30 PM after The Middle."

Now for the bad news: alongside Community, NBC also canceled Revolution, Growing Up Fisher, Believe, and Crisis.

And as was the case with Nashville and Last Man Standing earlier this week, the containing status of which was not confirmed by ABC, Parenthood is in a limbo state at NBC, and there's no word yet on Dracula. That's similar to where Hannibal was last year between first and second seasons, however, and that worked out. So these shows aren't necessarily dead. But they are in doubt.

Update: On Saturday May 10, NBC officially canceled Dracula. There are few details about the announcement, other than that basic fact. EW does say, however, that the chances for Parenthood carrying on seem to be good.