I looked it up, and apparently Chiyoh was loosely based on Lady Murasaki from Hannibal Rising (which I haven't read either), so the character would have originally been older than Hannibal. I think that they really wanted to use that actress, so they made some adjustments to the character?
And yeah, they've pretty much used most of the Hannibal book now. Bryan Fuller has adjusted his original 6 year plan a lot as originally he was only going to use the earlier seasons to tell the story of Will and Hannibal before Red Dragon, then each season was going to follow one of the books after that, but I guess that since then he got more invested in doing his own version of the canon with Will and Hannibal? He already put Silence Of The Lambs back until season 5, he had an entirely new story arc planned for season 4 apparently. And they can't use the Hannibal book any more as most of those plot points were covered in season 3. At this point I'm guessing that they'll leave SOTL if they ever do get a movie or the chance to make another season, and just stick to whatever original storyline Bryan had in mind for Hannibal and Will for season 4?
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And yeah, they've pretty much used most of the Hannibal book now. Bryan Fuller has adjusted his original 6 year plan a lot as originally he was only going to use the earlier seasons to tell the story of Will and Hannibal before Red Dragon, then each season was going to follow one of the books after that, but I guess that since then he got more invested in doing his own version of the canon with Will and Hannibal? He already put Silence Of The Lambs back until season 5, he had an entirely new story arc planned for season 4 apparently. And they can't use the Hannibal book any more as most of those plot points were covered in season 3. At this point I'm guessing that they'll leave SOTL if they ever do get a movie or the chance to make another season, and just stick to whatever original storyline Bryan had in mind for Hannibal and Will for season 4?