Support the siteSupport

Hannibal Lecter

One story has been filmed three separate times in three continuities that do not connect, and the prequel arrived last.

0%
complete

Where to start with Hannibal Lecter

Commit to the Anthony Hopkins films. They are the only strand that runs from one end of the story to the other, and the other two screen versions are alternatives to that strand rather than additions to it. Do not try to interleave them.

  1. 1
    The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Silence of the Lambs

    The best made of the four and the one that assumes nothing. It sits second in story order but explains its own setup from scratch, so it is the entry point.

  2. 2
    Hannibal (2001) Hannibal

    Set ten years later and the only genuine continuation in the strand. Watching it here keeps the two Clarice Starling films together instead of splitting them around a prequel.

  3. 3
    Red Dragon (2002) Red Dragon

    A prequel, so it can wait. It was filmed after both of the above and cast and shot to match them, and it plays much better as a look back than as an opening.

Then what? Hannibal Rising is first in story order and last in value. It is the one entry in the strand that nothing else depends on, and skipping it costs you nothing. Manhunter is worth watching afterwards, but as its own film rather than as part of the sequence: it tells the Red Dragon story with a different cast, a different Lecter and a different final act, and it is not a version of anything you have just seen. The NBC series is the other honest way in and it is a replacement, not a supplement. If you pick it, watch all three seasons and do not watch Red Dragon (2002) first, because the back half of season 3 is that story again. Clarice is a single season that ends unresolved. The novels are listed in the order Harris wrote them, which is also their story order apart from Hannibal Rising.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

0titles watched
0episodes checked
0left to watch
up next

Sync & backup

Your progress is saved on this device automatically. To carry it to another device, move the code below.

The code holds only this franchise. The link opens the tracker with your progress already filled in — good for showing someone where you're at. The image is a picture you can keep anywhere: scan the code on it with a phone, or drag the file back in below.

Drag a SagaList image here, or .

This reads the progress stored inside the picture, so nothing has to be retyped. If the image has been through a messaging app it may have been re-encoded and lost that — scan the code on it instead, or copy the code printed along the bottom.

Restoring replaces the progress currently saved on this device for the franchise the code belongs to.