Your Ultimate Guide to Every Dan Brown Movie and Conspiracy

With more than 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, The Da Vinci Code novelist Dan Brown, 57, is an undisputed pop-literature powerhouse. His Robert Langdon series features a juicy page-turning combination of religion, art, cryptography and conspiracy theories that has continually propelled him to the top of the best-seller list since the release of his 2000 hit Angels & Demons.

The books have also spawned a cinematic trilogy, starring Tom Hanks (65) and directed by Ron Howard (67). While they may not have captivated critics, the films have nonetheless grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. This month, the streaming service Peacock releases the latest Langdon thriller, a prequel TV series based on his book The Lost Symbol (out Sept. 16). Before you dive in, here's a quick refresher course on the first three films and a preview of the series, with everything you need to know — from the artworks being decoded to the wanderlust-inspiring settings and the controversies they've attracted along the way. Be warned: There are plenty of spoilers ahead!

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The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Based On: The second book in the Robert Langdon series, 2003's The Da Vinci Code

The Plot: When a curator at the Louvre turns up dead with bloody symbols carved into his body, Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) begins an investigation with the help of the victim's granddaughter, police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Amélie's Audrey Tautou). Through the use of clues hidden in works by Leonardo da Vinci, they set off to find the Holy Grail, but their plan is thrown for a loop when historian Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen, 82) reveals a potentially history-altering secret: The Grail is not a chalice but instead Mary Magdalene, who was actually the wife of Jesus Christ and the mother of his child. Langdon and Neveu zip around Paris and London in a race against Opus Dei, who seek to destroy the Grail and keep the Vatican's secret safe.

The Setting: Paris, London and Scotland

The Artworks Being Decoded: Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Madonna of the Rocks; the Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Scotland; the Louvre Inverted Pyramid

The Controversies: Though it's a work of fiction, many readers were outraged by the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child together. While it might be hard to imagine that the crowd-pleasing team of Howard and Hanks could create one of the most controversial movies of the decade, the film went on to be banned in a slew of countries, including Syria, Belarus, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and many more. Vatican officials called for a boycott, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting rated the movie morally offensive and described it as “deeply abhorrent.” Even the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) got in on the action, protesting the depiction of Silas, a villainous albino monk played by Paul Bettany, 50.

Watch It: The Da Vinci Code, on Netflix

Angels & Demons (2009)

Based On: The first book in the Robert Langdon series, 2000's Angels & Demons

The Plot: The pope has died, and a conclave is gathered to name a successor, when the four top candidates are kidnapped by a man claiming to be a part of the underground society known as the Illuminati. He promises to murder each one of the cardinals and then destroy the Vatican City using a canister of antimatter that he has stolen from CERN, the particle physics laboratory headquartered in Switzerland. Langdon teams up with nuclear physicist Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer, 52) to stop the assassin, and they rush around Rome searching for clues in the Baroque sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.