A canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is a body of material that is considered to be "genuine" or "official", that can be directly referenced as, or as if it were, material produced by the original author or creator of a series. New works set within that universe are ostensibly constrained to be consistent with pre-existing canon, though the issue is somewhat complicated by several factors: pre-existing canon itself may also be subject to re...
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A canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is a body of material that is considered to be "genuine" or "official", that can be directly referenced as, or as if it were, material produced by the original author or creator of a series. New works set within that universe are ostensibly constrained to be consistent with pre-existing canon, though the issue is somewhat complicated by several factors: pre-existing canon itself may also be subject to retcon, for instance, and some licensed works, such as movie or television novelizations or spin-off novels, may not be considered "canonical" by some. Additionally, adaptations of a work into other formats, such as feature film or television, may be considered either non-canonical, or forming a separate canon; and consistency with prior canon is not sufficient in and of itself to make a work "canonical" - fan fiction, for instance, often follows the original pre-existing canon but is not part of the canon.
The word "canon" originally referred...
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