Back in 2005, a few friends and I piled into my parents car to go watch the new Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith. When we stumbled out of the theater a few hours later, we chatted excitedly about what we had seen: Lightsaber duels, intergalactic drama, starship battles and the beginning of Darth Vader.
We were completely satisfied.
So it surprised me when I later learned that, for many viewers, the movie was not what they had hoped it would be. In fact, it seemed like most people hated it, along with its two prequel predecessors. The movies suffered quite a backlash, especially on the internet, with some fans even declaring that the prequels had “ruined their childhood.”
My friends and I were bewildered—we had grown up on the original trilogy of Star Wars and the prequels. We loved them both. Both trilogies were “Star Wars” to us. But to many others, that was not the case.
I remember wondering if these extreme reactions were the result of growing older. If my friends and I would one day—gasp!—join the dark side as our own childhoods were “ruined” by the next generation of Star Wars movies.
Well, I’m older now. And I haven’t necessarily loved everything offered in the most recent round of Star Wars content (to say nothing of the other beloved franchises Hollywood has resurrected to make a buck). But I’m pleased to report that my childhood is still very much intact—and a lot of that is thanks to headcanon.
Today’s Entertainment Landscape
If you’ve been around the internet long enough, you may have come across the term, “headcanon.” The word is popular enough that Merriam-Webster has a full page dedicated to it. But what is headcanon? What do people mean when they talk about it?
To understand that, we need to take a look at today’s entertainment landscape.
Over the past few decades, Hollywood has put an increasing emphasis on popular, pre-existing intellectual property, delivering a plethora of prequels, sequels, spinoffs, reboots and remakes. Just take a look at this year’s box office: From Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine to Despicable Me 4 and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, entertainment franchises are today’s movie titans. Even Twisters, while not a direct sequel to its 1996 forebear, still leaned heavily on existing IP.
And it’s not just movies. Franchises are big business in TV and video games as well. There’s a reason for that. Stories connect with us in a special way—either by transporting us to fantastical worlds, giving us characters we care about or thrilling us with drama and adventure. Some stories do all the above!
When we connect with these stories—whether it be in a movie, show or game—they stick with us. They become part of us. They may even help form the fabric of familial interactions. (I can’t tell you how often my family quotes movie lines to one another.)
So, when a new piece of entertainment comes out that’s tied to one of our beloved stories, we naturally want to experience it. But trying to recapture the magic of a prior experience is a tricky thing. There’s the danger that the new IP coming out might not live up to our lofty standards. Worse, any new additions might communicate a message contrary to our original understanding of the story or insert elements that are in opposition to our worldview. That can lead to some serious disappointment.
Fortunately, this is where headcanon can help.
What Is Headcanon?
“Headcanon is a slang term for someone’s personal interpretation of or belief about the details of a fictional story that aren’t part of the “official” account,” according to Dictionary.com.
Essentially, headcanon refers to what you choose to accept as part of a story or series. To give an example: If you’re a Star Wars original trilogy purist and you pretend the prequel and sequel trilogies don’t exist, that’s your headcanon. If I like the originals, plus the prequels and Andor, that’s my headcanon. Some people may love it all while others might hate it. That’s great—different people will have different tastes.
Now it can feel a little strange at first, acknowledging some films in a franchise while ignoring others. But headcanon can be a valuable media discernment tool for us and our families.
To start, it allows for a healthy distance between us and the stories we enjoy. We don’t have to stand upon the razor’s edge of fandom, worrying that the next installment of a beloved franchise might anger or disappoint us. You’ll never have to feel like something “ruined your childhood.” If you don’t care for something that occurs in a fictional universe, then you can ignore it. There’s no reason to lump it in with the earlier stories that you’ve enjoyed, particularly if newer entries are suddenly used as a conduit to push an agenda at odds with a biblical worldview.
But there’s another benefit to leveraging headcanon when it comes to your family’s entertainment choices—combating completionism.
Completionism and the Fear of Missing Out
Completionism, while not exclusive to the realm of entertainment and pop culture, can have a uniquely strong pull in this area. When we enjoy a franchise, we naturally want to return to that world. But there can also be a pressure to see everything and be in the know just to join the conversation. We don’t want to miss out.
This pressure isn’t only felt by us but our kids as well. They likely have their own collection of stories that they love and want to participate in—especially if their friends share those interests.
The problem is, not everything we want to experience or be involved in is beneficial to us. Paul touches on this in 1 Corinthians 10:23. We have freedom in Christ, but we are also called to make wise choices that build us up spiritually. And we need to teach our kids to make wise choices, too.
Headcanon as a Cure for Completionism
Let’s say your family has enjoyed many of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Those movies are not without their content concerns (be sure to read Plugged In’s reviews for details on what those concerns may be), but there’s a lot of good to be found there, too, such as justice, heroism and self-sacrifice.
But what do you do when your Marvel-loving kids want to watch the newest (and decidedly not kid-friendly) film in the MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine? Your kids might feel like they’re missing out if you decide not to let them see it, but it would probably be better for them if they didn’t.
The pressure of completionism—to experience everything—can be powerful, but headcanon can help us (and our kids) resist it.
Headcanon allows us to de-emphasize the “need” to see every piece of content that’s related to stories we’re interested in. Particularly, as stated above, if that new content conflicts with our biblical worldview.
So if your kids are struggling with missing out on the newest installment of their favorite franchise, encourage them to come up with their own story in that universe. This can spark your kids’ creativity and get them to think more critically about what they want to see in a good story. Push them to be active participants in their entertainment, rather than letting it simply wash over them.
Differentiating Reality from Fiction
But there’s another detail that is incredibly important to communicate to our kids regarding headcanon. While there’s no inherent harm in headcanon (barring some salacious fanfiction tales that have spawned from the practice), believing something contrary to the official canon of an entertainment franchise is much different than disagreeing with the truth found in the Bible.
In fact, the term “canon” originated within the Church. It was originally used to indicate what writings were considered, as Paul describes in 2 Timothy, “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The books of the Bible make up the canon of Scripture.
Though this term has been repurposed for use in media and franchise entertainment, we should always remember its origin. Headcanon can be a helpful tool when used in the appropriate context—indeed, it can soften the blow of seeing a story (and characters we care about) go in a disheartening direction. It can even promote creativity and fun conversations, as you and your kids consider what you would have liked to see instead.
But the Bible is off-limits. It contains truth, hope, and instruction. We don’t get to be the editors of that.
What we think about Christ is much more important than our thoughts on a fictional universe. We must conform our minds to the truth of Jesus Christ revealed through Holy Scripture and Church teaching.
Remembering that, more than anything, will help us (and our families) make wise media choices.
12 Responses
Thank you for writing this article. It touches on something I have been struggling with for years.
It may also end up paying negative box office dividends if future Marvel films marketed at “not R-rated” audiences depend on having seen and understood the Deadpool movies.
This is similar to an issue I was already having with Marvel, as they now have a number of Disney+ Marvel shows. Because I don’t have home Internet, Disney+ is not fun to watch. Netflix allows temporary downloads to laptops to watch offline, but Disney only allows them to tablets and phones. It makes watching more than one episode at once feel like a chore because the screen is small.
To some extent, the knowledge I have of the characters from reading Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Ms. Marvel comics helps me follow the movies, but I’m not getting all the nuances.
Another issue is the Marvel phases aspects. They aren’t introducing characters in singular origin stories the same way as they did with Captain America, Doctor Strange, etc.
Probably my favorite article on PluggedIn!
Great article. I encountered this with the Percy Jackson universe (PJU?) where eight or so books into the series an important character comes out as gay. This was disheartening but I had to choose not to let it spoil the previous books for me which were fairly content-free (aside from the obvious historical paganism). So it’s nice to know that something I figured out on my own has an official term. Thanks for sharing this!
Yeah, I was wondering if I should try with Percy Jackson. After I read (and enjoyed) the first book, I learned that it went gay. Is it worth the hassle? (obviously if I decide to pick up the series, I wouldn’t touch the gay books)
The first five books focus on Percy, Anna Beth, and Grover and are the original series. There was a point where Grover had to reluctantly and badly disguise himself as a girl to save his own life. I know some of the later continuations of the Percy Jackson do have same gender romances between other characters, though. The original five books are pretty fun to read if you like fantasy, first-person POV, and the Greek mythology aspect.
The Magnus Chase series has a girl with shape shifting powers who gets upset when other characters accidentally call her by the wrong gender. She also dates a boy character but sometimes as a boy instead of a girl. I didn’t actually finish that series and Riordan allowed more of the more violent parts of Norse mythology in that one than he did in Percy Jackson’s original five books.
I would say at least the first five books are worth it, yes. Ironically the “coming-out” book, House of Hades which is 9th overall in the series, wasn’t even written as well compared to its predecessors imo.
I want to clarify I don’t think this is how headcanon is used on the internet/in fandoms— you completely ignored the “details… that aren’t part of the ‘official’ account” aspect of it. This refers to things that aren’t explicitly shown in canon, like headcanoning two characters had dated before the canon events or headcanoning two characters as twins because they were played by the same actor (I actually have this headcanon for a franchise), or something simple like a character is scared of spiders. But the important thing is the canon doesn’t contradict any of those.
I do agree that you can ignore movies or whatever being part of the canon if you want (but make no mistake, they are still canon). I find people saying something “ruined their childhood” to be quite silly — it’s such a rude exaggeration. It’s just a movie, please move on or say something actually critical about it.
Concepts like this — fueled by Hollywood’s obsession with IP and the mainstreaming of nerd culture — have sucked so much of the fun out of movies for me. I don’t want another entry in a fictional universe that exists to be raved about, denounced, analyzed and debated online. I want a self-contained movie that somehow moves me.
I want fresh ideas, or at least old ideas delivered in a unique way. I want to feel wonder, awe, happiness, sadness, and all the other contradictory feelings that are part of the human experience. I want to walk out of a movie feeling something other than anticipation of a sequel. I want a movie to complicate my idea of right and wrong, to show me the world from a new perspective. I want to experience art as a human, not as a fan.
The best movies and TV shows, whether they’re part of a fictional universe or not, can still do those things. But if we keep buying tickets to mediocre exercises in corporate brand extension, Hollywood isn’t going to have an incentive to create anything better.
I think it’s crazy how the term canon originated from the church considering I’ve heard it for so long in relation to franchises and fanfiction
You have your terms confused. What you are talking about is “Fanon Discontinuity”, when fans choose to ignore or not acknowledge certain parts of a franchise for whatever reason. Head-Canon or Fanon is when fans basically “fill in the gaps” left in official storylines and character backgrounds and stuff with their own ideas and theories that they could imagine being true and usually don’t contradict real canon, and kind of enhance the fan experience for some people. Sometimes those ideas can be expanded in fan works and fan fiction. For example, a character with a quirky personality might be interpreted as being on the Autism spectrum by fans, even though the story itself does not address this, or a character might be imagined to be of a certain religion due to their nationality or background or some comment they make, even if the story itself does not say anything about their religion. Head-Canon is filling in and imagining extra missing details about a story, that you could see fitting with the actual story.