What Order Should I Watch The Hannibal Lecter Movies In?

There are five films based on the Hannibal Lecter novels by Thomas Harris, but the four that make up the film series are The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, and Hannibal Rising. The other film, Manhunter, is also based on Harris' novel Red Dragon, but most people don’t consider it to be a key “Hannibal Lecter movie” as it uses different actors, and the film's producers never obtained the copyright to use the name “Hannibal Lecter” (“Lecktor” is used instead).

In order of release, the Hannibal Lecter films are:

1.  The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

2.  Hannibal (2001)

3.  Red Dragon (2002)

4.  Hannibal Rising (2007)

You can also watch the films in order of events, which would be:

1.  Hannibal Rising (2007)

2.  Red Dragon (2002)

3.  Silence of the Lambs (1991)

4.  Hannibal (2001)

Personally, I don’t really think it matters which order you watch them in, but The Silence of the Lambs is the most popular, so it might be a good idea to start with that one to see if you want to watch the others.

When it comes to Hannibal, I’d recommend reading the book, as the ending is far more interesting!

I guess that depends if you want to watch them in the order in which they were made or not. If you want to watch then in that order, you would watch: Man Hunter, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, Hannibal Rising.

Man Hunter was made first and is the same story as Red Dragon, it might be interesting to watch those two back to back. Then you could watch Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. This would be the same as watching them in the order the books they are based on were written.

If you want to watch them in chronological order as far as the character of Hannibal lectern is concerned, I think it would be Hannibal Rising, Man Hunter, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.

Sorry I'm giving so many options. I have only seen Silence of the Lambs and Man Hunter, so I can't really make any recommendations based on having watched them all. Good luck and enjoy!

Watch hannibal rising then red dragon followed by silence of the lambs and last bt not least hannibal. Manhunter is a waste of time, leave it out.

So you can understand better and see how everything started, I think Hannibal Rising first, then Manhunter (if you want 'cause it's a lot alike Red Dragon) so you could watch either one (Red Dragon I think it's better), then watch The Silence of the Lambs and then Hannibal.  If you watch them in the order they came out you'd have a lot of questions, but if you watch them in this order things would be more clear.

Man hunter was made first yes then silence of the lambs, hannibal, red dragon, then last hannibal the rising.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you I have been wondering about the cronological order for ages and no where seems to have it xxx