The Teen Wolf TV show timeline could not be easier to follow.
It takes place over three years in-universe,
starting with the winter semester in year one and ending with the fall semester in year three.
Many times during the series' run,
many of the props on the show and even some of the dialogue just ignored this timeline.
But a few individual [ __ ] ups don't negate 100 episodes of solid canon.
Before we get into the timeline, here's how I'm
defining canon based on our practice over at the official Teen Wolf Wiki.
Canon is - as far as the site is concerned - the
events that transpire on screen during each episode.
It also takes into account past events as described by characters on the show
as well as some of the information relayed via props on the show.
The latter - the show's props - prove more often than not to conflict with prior established canon.
When a conflict occurs, we make note of it but give precedence to
the information provided via dialogue as this is more likely to convey the
writer's intent than would a prop they did not create themselves.
We know it's winter when the show starts because the Wolf
Moon happens in January and the very first episode is called "Wolf Moon".
But that's not the only hint we have.
We know only a couple of days pass between the end of season one and the beginning of season two.
Victoria: They'll be here in two days.
And then Lydia's birthday is in March with the Worm Moon as dead Peter Hale explains.
Peter: Do you know what they call the full moon in March it's called the worm moon.
So we have solid block of non-stop timeline from the start of the show to about three
months in and that gives us a solid base for the beginning of year one.
Teacher: Have a great summer everyone.
Stiles: No.
Teacher: To the seniors I'll see you at graduation.
Stiles: No, no, no. That's it? What?
At the end of season 6A, Scott, Lydia, Stiles and Malia graduate in the spring of year three.
Then in 6B the story picks up at the beginning of a new school year in the fall of year three.
Mason: The point is summer is almost over. We're about to be seniors.
This is about to be the best year of our entire lives.
Teen Wolf the TV show is three years of time broken into six seasons.
All the history of the show and the upcoming movie
branch off in both directions - past and future - from these three years.
The movie takes place in 2026,
roughly 12 to 13 years since the last time we were all in Beacon Hills.
The movie will also take place in our future - from our perspective - as we're
watching it on Paramount Plus in January of 2023.
Going the other direction - into the canonical past of the Teen Wolf Universe - we have a pretty
clear picture of a number of important events that took place before Year One.
We know Derek and Paige were in high school more than 10 years
before Year One because the sheriff said it.
Sheriff: The records will be over 10 years old. I just need to look over a couple files.
We know the Hale House fire took place six years before Year One because everyone - except a
single on-screen reference - places the fire six years before Year One.
Derek: Six years ago my sister and I were at school.
Our house caught fire.
As explained, at the official Teen Wolf Wiki we trust dialogue over props.
But we also have to judge dialogue based on who said it and under what circumstances.
The perfect example of how to judge dialogue as non-canonical
is this Stiles scene where he says the fire happened like 10 years ago.
Stiles: That was Derek Hale. You remember right?
He's only like a few years older than us.
Scott: Remember what?
Stiles: His family, they all burned to death in a fire like 10 years ago.
But then we learned it was actually six because Derek said so.
Both of these cannot be right picking which one is canonical in this case is pretty simple.
Stiles was talking casually about an event that
happened to someone else when he himself was just a little kid.
Derek is talking about something that he experienced personally.
We believe Derek over Stiles.
Each contradiction like this has to be judged on its own merit within the context of the show.
Again, most of the bad props can never be saved but Teen Wolf does have a pretty
simple and straightforward timeline if you don't get bogged down in the minutia.