The Daily Dot

Fans often characterize TV showrunners as all-powerful beings with complete creative control over their work. The truth is that not everything is a creative decision. Making progressive entertainment has always been an uphill struggle, particularly on TV where everything has to be vetted by a foodchain of network representatives and advertisers before it makes it to the small screen. Fuller is one of the few prominent writers and directors in Hollywood who goes out of his way to talk about discrimination in popular media, at the risk of damaging his career. When he’s not outing his characters on Twitter, he’s doing interviews where he talks about his dream of directing a Star Trek series starring “Captain Angela Bassett and First Officer Rosario Dawson.”

As someone who has presumably had to make compromises to get where he is in Hollywood, is Bryan Fuller perfect? Obviously not. But you can be sure that when you see instances of LGBT characters and gay subtext in his shows, it isn’t “queerbaiting.” Unlike the many shows that play with no-homo humor but have no real investment in portraying LGBT characters in a positive light, we know that Hannibal was created by someone who is well aware of the obstacles people face when trying to introduce more diverse representation on mainstream TV.