Silence of the Lambs’ Clarice Starling returns in first trailer for sequel TV series

New show focuses on Starling’s career post-Hannibal Lecter

A first trailer has been unveiled for Clarice, a Silence of the Lambs sequel series focusing on FBI agent Clarice Sterling.

The show, which will begin airing next month in the US, takes place in the aftermath of the events depicted in The Silence of the Lambs – namely, the unmasking of serial killer Buffalo Bill  by Starling.

In the new trailer, Starling, portrayed by Rebecca Breeds, heads to Washington, DC to continue working as an investigator.

Despite her “very public reputation for hunting monsters”, Starling is apparently confronted to a variety of roadblocks, from her own trauma to a superior who sternly informs her that “this isn’t Buffalo territory anymore, Starling. …You’ll keep quiet until I tell you, and then you’ll say what I tell you.”

While it is explicitly based on The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris’s 1988 novel, Clarice won’t make direct references to Hannibal Lecter, the captured serial killer portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning 1991 adaptation. (In the movie version, Starling was portrayed by Jodie Foster, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role.)

According to Entertainment Weekly, that is due to how rights to the franchise’s characters are divided between different production companies. “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,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman told the publication.

The first season of Clarice reportedly won’t focus on a single serial killer case, in another departure from the template established in The Silence of the Lambs. 

Clarice will premiere on 11 February on CBS.