The Hannibal Lecter franchise includes various different versions of events: from the original books, to adaptations which present certain alternate details. In order for us to be able to keep the content organized and avoid confusions in what gets added to page, we have a timeline policy, which explains how we treat content from different media.
Timelines[]
At Hannibal Wiki, we consider the Hannibal Lecter franchise as having two differing timelines.
1. Books, movies, and Clarice television series[]
This timeline covers the characters and events from the original books by Thomas Harris, supplemented by their movie adaptations, and also includes the television series Clarice.
Articles belonging to this grouping should have simple titles, without any elements (such as brackets) differentiating from other articles, such as Hannibal Lecter or Jame Gumb, for example.
Content from the movie adaptations, such as images, can be added to help illustrate the information. For the movies that have deviations from the events as they appear in the books, these changes can either be explained as part of the text itself, or in a "behind the scenes" section of the article, but they should still remain in the original articles. We do not have movie-only articles.
The Clarice television series is intended as a sequel set after the events of The Silence of the Lambs that still fits in with story of the books. For returning characters such as Clarice Starling or Paul Krendler, there should be a Clarice section covering the series under, and separate from the books/movies section - this is to avoid displaying incomplete series information in between books, and to ease the editing flow. (The template {{Clarice content}} should help clarify this to the reader.)
Note: In the event that the Clarice series deviates from the books substantially and becomes something that is clearly alternative, we can always revisit this organization, and see if there is a need for splitting the articles. Feel free to contact an administrator if you believe this is becoming necessary.
2. Hannibal television series[]
This timeline covers only the characters and events from the Hannibal television series.
Most articles belonging to the series currently have titles that include (TV) in brackets, such as Hannibal Lecter (TV) and Will Graham (TV), as these needed differentiating from their original versions. Characters that are unique to the series, or were gender-swapped, do not need these (such as Abel Gideon, or Alana Bloom), while others present some exceptions (such as Freddie Lounds (TV), whose name still sounds the same).
Although Hannibal adapts many of the stories from the books, it does so without being a direct adaptation. Certain events take place in a different order, or are reinterpreted in a different manner; there are also many characters and situations unique to the series. Given that the series spans three seasons, it has been more convenient for the wiki to handle these articles separately.
Note: The inclusion of (TV) in the titles was made prior to the appearance of the Clarice series in the wiki. Since there are now two television series, a future goal for the wiki is to replace the (TV) with something specific to the Hannibal series, to avoid confusion. At the moment, however, Hannibal-related articles remain as the ones with (TV).