How to watch all the Hannibal Lecter movies in order

Fans of thrillers will certainly remember The Silence of the Lambs as one of the most influential films in the genre. The 1991 movie based on the Thomas Harris novels about Doctor Hannibal Lecter was starred by Sir Anthony Hopkins. This adaptation managed to go home with five Oscar statuettes in the year of its release, including Best Movie, Best Director, and both Best Actor and Best Actress. But the Hannibal Lecter universe goes much further than this one movie and its prequel. This is why we bring you the chronological order of every adaptation based on this amazing character, including tv series.

In what order should you watch the Hannibal Lecter movies?

The Oscar-winning movie starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster wasn’t the first adaptation of the stories, characters and universe: In 1986 Michael Mann directed Manhunter, an adaptation of the earlier days of Hannibal Lecter in which the police pursue a sneaky assassin that only strikes at nights with a full moon. Red Dragon was released in 2002, and was a prequel to Hopkin’s movie, but the year before Hannibal, a sequel, was also released in theaters.

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In 2007 Hannibal Rising was released, a prequel to everything mentioned before that tells the story of a young Hannibal Lecter. As you can see, that’s five whole movies dealing with different timelines all mixed in with each other, so it’s kind of necessary to order them chronologically by events to enjoy the full story without losing the story threads. We also didn’t want to ignore the awesome Hannibal TV series from 2013, starring Mads Mikkelsen as the titular doctor, but that series’ timeline is an entire retelling of the novels.

Hannibal Lecter movies in chronological order