The First Haunting Trailer for the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Prequel Series, ‘Clarice,’ Is Here

Clarice Starling is back in action. The FBI agent portrayed by Jodie Foster in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs is getting her own prequel show, Clarice, on CBS. Now played by Rebecca Breeds, the series sees Starling returning to the field—and to her home of West Virginia—about a year after catching serial killer Buffalo Bill. She quickly finds that with her new reputation comes high expectations, though no respite from the subtle sexism of her fellow agents.

In the first full trailer, Starling uneasily steps back into the spotlight as new horrors attack Washington, D.C. The producers of the show told Entertainment Weekly the series won’t have a traditional serial killer antagonist, per se, but “an entity that represents something that we deal with in our lives all the time,” according to executive producer Alex Kurtzman. Additionally, the show is set in 1993, which means that the FBI is also dealing with public scrutiny in the wake of the Waco disaster and World Trade Center bombings.

Dr. Lecter will also be fading back into the background for this series. Though Starling is obviously traumatized by what she went through to catch Buffalo Bill, Hannibal will not be seen, heard, or even mentioned thanks to the oddly-divided rights to the characters from Thomas Harris’s novel. Viewers might remember that NBC’s Hannibal had Lecter and FBI agent Will Graham; this series will feature familiar characters, like Clarice, Ardelia Mapp (Devyn Tyler), and Catherine Martin (Marnee Carpenter), but they legally can’t mention Lecter. Spooky!

We don’t get too much information about Starling’s home, past, or family life in the trailer, but we do find out that she hasn’t been back to “Appalachia” in quite some time. She surely will have some demons of her own from childhood to work through as she hunts down new killers. After all, something must have driven her to join the Bureau in the first place, and it probably wasn’t a happy, carefree adolescence. Whatever her issues, we can’t wait to see this character brought to life once more. Until the show premieres on February 11, you can always watch The Silence of the Lambs again for a good scare.