It’s been almost ten years since the Twilight saga wrapped up, so what projects could potentially follow up the final film in the series? The Twilight saga was phenomenally popular upon release, with the series of five films being blockbuster hits at the box office. However, despite this popularity (which has enjoyed a recent revival online), the Twilight movies were never embraced by critics, who called the movies melodramatic, self-serious, and silly.
While the first Twilight movie received better reviews than many of its sequels, this was largely due to director Catherine Hardwicke adding a murder mystery subplot to liven up proceedings. Subsequent sequels such as New Moon failed to earn even begrudgingly approving write-ups, although David Slade’s third movie Eclipse was seen by many reviewers as a step in the right direction. By the end of the series, although the two-part Breaking Dawn was far from the most-hated Twilight movies, it was clear that the zeitgeist had moved on and the saga was ending just as its popularity was waning and its target demographic was growing disinterested.
That said, the release of 2015’s Life and Death and 2020’s Midnight Sun, both retellings of the original novel by series author Stephenie Meyer, prove that there is still some interest in a sequel to the series. With many of Twilight’s cast being big stars now, it seems unlikely that any subsequent reboot, sequel, or re-imagining would be able to corral together the original cast again. However, there are plenty of projects for the producers to pick from in the Twilight canon, as Meyer has authored a gender-flipped retelling, a perspective-switched version, and a supplementary novella for the series. So, which of these literary Twilight offshoots is most likely to make it to the big screen, and which ones are likely to be forever left on the shelf?
Midnight Sun
A recent bestseller from Meyer, Midnight Sun retells the story of the first Twilight novel from the perspective of teen vampire Edward Cullen rather than his human love interest Bella Swan. Despite the novel selling a million copies in its first week, the fact that this is a straightforward perspective flip makes a movie adaptation unlikely. Original Twilight star Robert Pattinson is now busy playing Batman and the part of Edward would be a difficult one to recast, given how much the actor’s appearance is associated with the male lead of the series. Not only that but even if it weren’t for conflicting schedules, many of the primary actors have aged out of their roles, and recasting the entire saga for the sake of telling the same story from a different angle would likely not be enough to justify another Twilight movie.
Much of the criticism leveled at Midnight Sun noted that the retelling barely changed the plot of the original novel, failing to expand on the story Meyer had already told. A retelling of the original movie has potential and could fill in missing details like the villainous Laurent’s truncated role. However, Midnight Sun was criticized for failing to do this and a movie adaptation would be unlikely to change the novel’s approach (since Midnight Sun’s impressive sales are the most obvious justification for a new movie). As a result, a Midnight Sun movie would likely be an expensive exercise in futility as the original movie already incorporates Edwards’s perspective at times, rendering a perspective flip retelling unnecessary.
Life and Death
The project that is most likely to earn a movie adaptation, Life and Death retold the story of Twilight with the genders swapped. The project earned better reviews than most of Meyers’ writing (including the original Twilight) and the fact that this one was written in response to the flat characterization of Bella in the original saga makes its adaptation a promising prospect. That said, Life and Death did not change Twilight’s story completely, and even with the genders of the main characters switched, the events of the story were still extremely familiar for fans. This could potentially prove problematic as the similarity may make a movie adaptation superfluous, but given the popularity of gender-based re-imaginings of well-liked franchises, this remains the route that producers would be most likely to take with a potential new Twilight sequel.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
A novella told from the perspective of a short-lived (and truly tragic) minor character in Eclipse, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is unlikely to ever receive a full-length movie adaptation. For one thing, Bree’s brutally sad story is depicted (however briefly) in one of Eclipse’s many subplots, with David Slade’s underrated Twilight movie managing to stay true to the novella’s tragic story without dwelling on its plot for too long. Bree’s tale is truncated in the movie adaptation but the lackluster response to this novella proves that viewers do not necessarily want or need to see more of her story for the plot to work, meaning a movie adaptation of this standalone story could be superfluous. The novella’s brief, bleak action is sparse and does not have sufficient material to prop up an entire adaptation, particularly when its action occurs concurrently with the already-adapted original saga and does not involve the recognizable cast.
This element would likely make a movie adaptation of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner appealing to producers, as the fact that Bella, Edward, and Jacob are not present for the story’s action means their expensive actors would not need to return. However, as The Host’s failure proved, this cast was instrumental to the success of the Twilight series and there is no reason to believe that Meyers’ writing alone could carry a movie to financial and critical success, rendering a movie adaptation less likely again. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner was rightly considered something of a cash-in upon its initial publication, written to capitalize on the success of the movie series. While Life and Death and Midnight Sun were both similarly opportunistic rewrites, the latter was being worked on since early in Twilight’s production while the former did offer a new, interesting take on the material, meaning these stories are more likely to become future Twilight sequels than the critically dismissed novella.