Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA.

Will and Grace star Sean Hayes told critics during an afternoon panel for the new NBC seriocomic fantasy hour Grimm that he’s considering taking a role in the show where he serves as an exec producer. After one of his production partners let it slip, a critic pressed Hayes. The actor, who earlier in the day signed a development deal with the network to headline a half-hour series, downplayed the Grimm role with a vague acknowledgement. “It’s possible down the road,” he said without giving any hint of what form the role might take. “It’s nothing imminent.”

Discussing the potential darkness of the Grimm concept, series regular Silas Weir Mitchell cautioned that it won’t be anything close to, say, the notorious and disturbing 19th century German children’s book Der Struwwelpeter and the musical it spawned, Shockheaded Peter. “There’s a story in there about a little boy who’s a thumbsucker,” Mitchell said. “People told him, ‘Don’t suck your thumb, or Mr. Cut Your Thumb Off Guy is going to coming running through the door.’ And the kid is like, ‘Yeah, OK, whatever.’ So the kid sucks his thumb, and this guy runs in and chops this kid’s thumbs straight off, and they’re just bleeding all over. The final image is this cute little kid holding his hands up with no thumbs and blood pouring out. Kinda creepy. But we’re not going to do that.”