Given the ending of Hannibal Season 2, it's not easy to picture how the NBC crime drama will move forward without heavily featuring Gillian Anderson's therapist, Bedelia du Maurier. It turns out, we don't have to picture that scenario.

Creator Bryan Fullerconfirms the X-Files veteran has been promoted to series regular for the new season of Hannibal. It's welcome news, considering that (SPOILER ALERT) every single series regular, aside from Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter, ended the second season with their lives hanging in the balance. Not only that, but Anderson's du Maurier was last seen on an airplane with Lecter, fleeing the country for unknown reasons.

Previously, Fuller described the upcoming season three premiere as feeling like "a pilot for a new series" focused on Hannibal and Bedelia, and it sounds like that's exactly what we're getting.

"The cast and crew of Hannibal are positively giddy to be welcoming Gillian to Season 3 as a series regular," Fuller told TVLine. "A striking presence on stage and screen, she brings wit, grace and intelligence to every role she embodies. Screenwriting is so much easier when you’re inspired by a great actor and Gillian has filled the Hannibal writers room with wonderful inspiration. I can’t wait for audiences to see her make a bigger meal out of the Cannibal than ever before."

Hannibal returns in early 2015.