Mads Mikkelsen is no stranger to playing the ‘Bad Buy’ after his role as Le Chiffre in “Casino Royale,” but now the Danish actor can add another iconic villain to his resume: Hannibal Lecter.

Deadline reported Monday that the “Clash of the Titans” actor has signed on to play the cannibal in NBC’s new TV series written by Bryan Fuller (“Pushing Daisies”, “Heroes”) with the hopes of getting the pilot aired by the end of 2012.

Deadline offered the following synopsis of the show, simply titled “Hannibal”:

The project is described as a contemporary thriller featuring the classic characters from Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon – FBI agent Will Graham (Dancy) and his mentor Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mikkelsen) — who are re-introduced at the beginning of their budding relationship. Graham a gifted criminal profiler on the hunt for a serial killer with the FBI who enlists the help of Dr. Lecter, one of the premier psychiatric minds in the country, with no clue about his darker side.

Fuller revealed to EW last month that the TV series is a prequel to the films, Lecter and Graham will be solving crimes side-by-side with Lecter’s ‘past time’ a hidden secret.

“It’s before he was incarcerated, so he’s more of a peacock. There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He’s not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock’s principle of suspense — show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it’s going to go boom. So the audience knows who Hannibal is so we don’t have to overplay his villainy. We get to subvert his legacy and give the audience twists and turns.”

Anthony Hopkins (also of “Thor” and “Thor 2″) made the character famous in “Silence of the Lambs” and then playing the crazed cannibal in the lesser film “Hannibal” in 2001 and 2002′s “Red Dragon.”

Mikkelsen is joining the Comic Book Movie genre, taking on a mysterious villain in “Thor 2,” which will be directed by “Game of Thrones” creator Alan Taylor. Malekith, an evil dark elf, may be the most likely role for the “Three Musketeers” actor, but nothing official has been announced.

He will also be starring in a Denmark film called “The Hunt” due in October with the “Thor 2″ production set for later this fall.

There is dates set for “Hannibal” at this point.

“Thor 2″ arrives in theaters November 8, 2013.

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