Which properties have the most Canon?
Shades of Eternity
Hero
Doctor Who it has been going the longest on tv and has the most series, even if the canon migrates.
but even marvel or dc might not the same level of canon as a really old soap opera.
but even marvel or dc might not the same level of canon as a really old soap opera.
Benjamin Olson
Hero
The potentially "canon" materials you are talking about are the unpublished notes of J. R. R. Tolkien, which are, well, unpublished, unfinished and inconsistent. Many are rough drafts, or supporting different versions of the continuity than that that made it to the published work. We would not know the names of the two blue wizards, as you claim, because Tolkien's notes involve two different sets of names for them, whose etymologies seem to support two different narratives of what happened to them that he was playing with (it's not clear he ever made up his mind if they were just very busy in the east fighting the good fight during the events of Lord of the Rings, or if they had strayed from their cause and set themselves up as some sort of sorcerer cult leaders). Tolkien played with a lot of ideas. In one of my favorite annecdotes in the history of fiction writing the character that eventually evolved in Sauron first appeared in Tolkien's works as a talking cat.
Benjamin Olson
Hero
It depends what we mean by canon. OP seems to count worldbuilding details as "canon", whereas some responses are more geared to "what has the most official published works in some sort of continuity". I think the latter understanding is a DC vs. Marvel fight. But if the question is what has the most extensive worldbuilding in materials deemed "canonical" then it's a much more open question. The average rpg campaign module tends to add a lot more unique worldbuilding detail than the average comic book.
That doesn't even address fundamental issues of what really qualifies as being canonical, or when or why we should care. Before that can even really be addressed we need to clarify the more foundational matter of whether this thread is about the breadth and complexity of lore deemed canonical or about the volume of published works deemed canonical.
That doesn't even address fundamental issues of what really qualifies as being canonical, or when or why we should care. Before that can even really be addressed we need to clarify the more foundational matter of whether this thread is about the breadth and complexity of lore deemed canonical or about the volume of published works deemed canonical.
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Storyteller Hero
Adventurer
Shout out for BATTLETECH. 
Depends on the company.
Marvel, even after its single actual universal reboot (2015's Secret Wars), still considers stories going all the way back to 1939 to be part of the universe's history. They do have a sliding timeline (so the Fantastic Four always got started a decade or so before the present), and retcons to events, and even actual in-universe changes to the past.... but no reboots from scratch and the broad strokes generally remain in place.
DC, on the other hand, has a habit of doing reboots of varying degrees... then declaring the old continuities to still exist in some form that's eventually accessible, or altering history to restore formerly deleted bits. They did this in the 1960s by reintroducing Golden Age characters on another Earth; in the 1980s by rebooting the universe but with elements integrated from Golden Age and other canon; in the 2000s with Infinite Crisis restoring the multiverse and some Silver Age elements; in the 2010s with DC Rebirth bringing back parts of the pre-New 52 canon; and in the 2020s with their new Infinite Frontier paradigm, where (ostensibly) every version of the DCU is out there again.
There are absolutely some soap operas with long histories, but unless it's a soap opera that got started before TV did, still pretty sure Marvel and DC have more history.
Far as I know, in the comics, Peter Parker was still bitten by a radioactive spider, still failed to save Gwen Stacy, still wore the symbiote that became Venom, still dealt with a whole cloning crisis, still learned he was a "spider-totem", and still owned his own company for a while. The one major thing that was removed was his marriage to Mary Jane, and that through a literal deal with the devil that altered history in-universe.
The fine details may have shifted due to the sliding timeline (so he presumably got bit in the 2010s at this point), but all Spidey's stories are still true otherwise.
Now, if you're talking about adaptations to other media, or alternate realities, then sure, all kinds of Spidey lore. But in the comics, it's one continuous history.
Would the Tommy Westphall universe count?
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The Master List
Current Master List of all 419 Tommy Westphall Multiverse shows. As we talk about shows here, we’ll update the list to include tag links. Updated: August 2016. Title Years Aired 24 (2001-2010…
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