The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies star Richard Armitage has signed on to play iconic villain Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. The Tooth Fairy, in Season 3 of NBC's Hannibal. The character was a primary villain in Thomas Harris' first Hannibal Lecter novel, Red Dragon, with the character portrayed on the big screen by Tom Noonan in the 1986 adaptation Manhunter and by Ralph Fiennes in the 2003 adaptation Red Dragon. While it isn't clear exactly when he will debut in Season 3 quite yet, Richard Armitage's arc is expected to last six episodes.

The villainous character is a bodybuilder who sports an immense dragon tattoo on his back, and wears two sets of vicious false teeth. Richard Armitage joins another new Season 3 casting addition in Tao Okamoto, who signed on in October to play Lady Murasaki, a character first introduced in Thomas Harris' prequel novel Hannibal Rising, who was played by Li Gong in the 2007 feature adaptation. In both the original novel and the adaptation, Murasaki was Lecter's aunt, but it isn't known if this aspect of the story will carry over into the series.

The series has also re-cast sociopath Mason Verger, with Joe Anderson taking over the role from Michael Pitt. Gillian Anderson was also promoted to series regular as Bedelia du Maurier, who was last seen leaving with Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) in the Season 2 finale. Season 3 will focus on the hunt for Hannibal Lecter, which will begin in Europe with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) trying to track him down. NBC hasn't issued a premiere date for Season 3 of Hannibal, so stay tuned for more information.