This content has been automatically translated from Ukrainian.
Imagine two fans of a series arguing about a character. One says, "He definitely fears heights." The other denies, "That was never the case, it's not canon." To someone outside of fandoms, such a response might sound strange: the character is fictional — what does "was" or "wasn't" mean?
This is where the concept of canon comes in. It helps separate what officially exists within a certain story from fan assumptions, alternative versions, and simply popular notions about the characters.
What is canon in simple terms
In books, movies, series, comics, anime, video games, and other fictional worlds, canon is the events, characters, facts, and rules that are considered part of the official story.
If a movie explicitly shows that a hero was born in a certain city, that is a canonical fact. If a character dies in a novel — their death belongs to the canon of that story. However, a popular theory that they actually survived does not become canon by itself.
Therefore, in fan circles, the phrase "that's canon" essentially means: "that really happened according to the rules of this fictional world." And "not canon" means that a certain version is not confirmed by the main work or does not fit into the official storyline.
At the same time, the concept of canon is not always absolutely clear-cut. In large franchises, fans themselves may argue about which sources should be considered authoritative. This is how canon is defined by the fan culture encyclopedia Fanlore: as a source or a collection of sources considered authoritative within a certain fandom.
Where does the word "canon" come from
The term is much older than modern films, comics, and fandoms.
The word ultimately comes from the Greek kanōn — "rule," "measure," "model," or "standard." Through Latin, it entered European languages and over the centuries acquired several related meanings. This etymology is cited, in particular, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
In religion, canon refers to a recognized body of sacred texts or established rules. In literature, one can talk about the literary canon — a collection of works considered important, influential, or exemplary for a certain culture, era, or movement. The word is also used in art and music, although it has its specific meanings there.
In all these cases, one common idea is preserved: there exists a certain recognized set of works, rules, or models.
Thus, the word has naturally found its place in discussions about fictional universes.
What does Sherlock Holmes have to do with it
The history of the modern fan use of the word "canon" is often associated with Sherlock Holmes, although the claim that it was the fans of Holmes who literally invented this meaning would be too simplistic.
The traditional Sherlockian canon consists of 60 stories by Arthur Conan Doyle — four novels and 56 short stories. These works are usually what is meant when talking about the classic Canon of Sherlock Holmes. This composition of the canon is cited, in particular, by The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.
Interestingly, Holmes' supporters began to analyze these works as if Sherlock, Watson, and the events they described really existed.
One of the key texts for this tradition was Ronald Knox's Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes. It was presented in Oxford in 1911 and later published. Knox humorously applied serious textual criticism methods to the stories about Holmes: he looked for contradictions, tried to reconstruct the characters' biographies, and explained details as if he were dealing with real historical documents.
Over time, this attitude towards the fictional world became characteristic of many fandoms: if there are a large number of stories about the same characters, sooner or later the question arises — which of them "really happened" within this world?
Thus, the concept of canon became particularly convenient.
Who decides what is canon
With a single novel, everything is relatively simple: what is written in the novel constitutes its canon. Problems arise when the story turns into a large franchise.
This may include main films, series, books, comics, video games, spin-offs, guides, additional stories, and other works. Some of them continue the main story, others exist in parallel, and some may directly contradict each other.
That is why "official" and "canonical" are not always complete synonyms.
A comic may be officially released by the franchise owner but not belong to the main canon. An adaptation of a book usually creates its own version of the story.
For example, if a character has one biography in a novel and another in a film, that is not necessarily a mistake. There are simply two separate canons — the book and the screen.
Similarly, one should not automatically transfer all events from Marvel comics into the Marvel cinematic universe just because the same heroes appear in them.
Therefore, the question "Is this canon?" sometimes requires clarification: canon of which version?
Can canon change
Yes. And this is precisely why debates about canon can sometimes last for years.
New books, seasons of a series, or parts of a game can add information about events that were previously unclear. Authors may explain a hero's past, change our perception of a certain scene, or even contradict what was established earlier.
For such cases, there is the term retcon — from the English retroactive continuity.
Retcon occurs when new information changes or reinterprets already established facts.
For example, for several seasons, viewers consider a character an ordinary person, and then it turns out that they have been hiding their origins all along. The old scenes do not disappear, but after the new information, they are perceived differently.
An even more radical variant is a reboot, meaning a restart of the story. Authors may keep familiar characters and the main idea but start the plot anew. Then the old and new canons exist separately.
What is headcanon
Alongside canon, the word headcanon is very often encountered in fan culture. It can be literally explained as "canon in the head".
Headcanon — is a fan's personal conception of a character, event, relationship, or world that is not confirmed by the official work.
The main feature of headcanon is that it often fills a gap that the author simply did not address.
For example, a series never showed what kind of coffee a certain character likes. A viewer might decide that they drink only black coffee without sugar, as it fits their character well. This is headcanon.
Or a fan might imagine that two characters continued to communicate after the finale, even though their further lives are not described at all.
Headcanon can rely on small details, subtext, and the character's behavior, or it can be almost entirely invented. The term itself is explained by Fanlore as a personal interpretation of canon concerning things that were not revealed in the original work. More about headcanon in Fanlore.
It is important to note that headcanon does not equal canon. It is a fan's own assumption, not an official fact.
Sometimes an interesting situation arises: an author releases a new part of the story years later and accidentally confirms an old fan theory. Then what was once only headcanon effectively becomes canon.
The opposite can also happen: new material directly contradicts a popular assumption.
Headcanon and fanon are not the same
There is another word — fanon, formed by combining fan and canon.
The difference between it and headcanon primarily lies in scale.
Headcanon — is a personal version of an individual fan or a small group. Fanon — an idea that has spread so widely in the fandom that it begins to be perceived almost as a well-known fact, even though the official work does not confirm it.
Fanlore defines fanon as an element widely accepted among fans but having little or no basis in canon.
Sometimes fanon is born from a popular fanfic, joke, meme, or fan theory. Then this idea is repeated in fan art, other fanfics, and discussions — until new community members find it difficult to understand whether it was in the original.
This can be roughly illustrated as follows:
Canon: the author explicitly stated that the character loves cats.
Headcanon: a fan imagines that the character has three cats at home.
Fanon: a significant portion of the fandom already depicts the hero with three cats and mentions them in fanfics, even though these animals were never in the original.
That is why sometimes it is worth checking the primary source even when a certain "fact" about a beloved character seems absolutely obvious.
What if the author said something in an interview?
This is one of the gray areas of canon.
In fan culture, the statements of authors outside of the work itself are sometimes referred to as Word of God — literally "the word of God." This refers to a situation where a writer, screenwriter, or other creator provides additional information about the world or character in an interview, social media, or during a fan meeting.
For example, the books never state where a hero studied, but the writer names a specific university during an interview.
Does such a fact become canon?
There is no universal answer. Some fans consider the author's statement sufficient. Others adhere to the principle: if the information is not in the work itself, it does not have the same status as the events of the book, film, or game.
The situation becomes particularly complicated in large franchises, where dozens of screenwriters, writers, directors, and producers work on one world. There, even the words of one of the authors may not definitively establish the rules for the entire universe.
Why do fans argue so much about canon
Because canon creates a common point of reference.
Fans can invent alternative endings, new character biographies, romantic pairs, and entire parallel worlds. This is a significant part of the enjoyment of fan creativity. But to consciously change the original story, one must understand what it was like initially.
Therefore, canon answers the question: "What do we definitely know from the official story?"
Headcanon — "How do I personally imagine what the author did not tell?"
Fanon — "What has a significant portion of the fandom come to believe, even though it is not officially confirmed?"
And fanfic can pose a different question altogether: "What if things had happened differently?"
That is why the word "canon" has long transcended the fields of religious studies and literary studies. In modern pop culture and the internet, it is a convenient way to draw a line between the official story and everything that fans create, imagine, and reinterpret around it.
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