It’s hard to picture anyone but Kristen Stewart as Twilight heroine Bella Swan, but originally the part was earmarked for Michelle Trachtenberg, which would have given the franchise a Buffy The Vampire Slayer connection. Released in 2008, director Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight was an adaptation of author Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling teen paranormal romance saga of the same name. Although financially successful, the movies struggled to find favor with critics who called their plots ludicrous and their tone melodramatic.

Many of the reviews that criticized the movies found fault with the performances of young leads Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart too. Although both actors have since gone on to earn critical acclaim, some critics found their early turns hard to identify with, lending credence to author Stephenie Meyer’s original casting choices for Edward and Bella, Emily Browning and Henry Cavill. However, time has been kind to the careers of Stewart and Pattinson, both of whom have enjoyed independent success since the series ended. What a lot of fans may not know, though, is that Stewart almost missed out on Bella to an actor who had more experience tangling with vampires.

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According to an interview that the actress did with Marie Claire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg was originally in line to play Bella in the movie adaptations of the novel saga. It wasn’t meant to be as the actor was busy and, having played a sorority girl in 2006 slasher Black Christmas, arguably too old for the part by the time filming commenced (unless her interview refers to Paramount’s earlier canceled Twilight adaptation from 2005). But Dawn Summers herself Michelle Trachtenberg was nonetheless considered for a gig that would have created a connection between the most iconic vampires of the ‘00s and the most iconic vampire hunter of the ‘90s.

Even outside of age concerns, it is just as well Trachtenberg was too busy to take on the role, as Twilight’s self-serious treatment of vampire lore could have been unintentionally funny coming from an actor known for a more sardonic take on similar material. Buffy was famous for featuring a self-aware humor missing from most young adult horror and fantasy, and the Twilight series wouldn’t gain this sort of tongue-in-cheek tone until 2010’s underrated Eclipse. For the first few films, the Twilight saga played both the teen romance and the supernatural elements dead straight as high drama was what the teen fanbase wanted, despite this tonal approach being a contributing factor to the bad reviews received by the series.

Luckily, Trachtenberg is not alone in missing out on a Twilight role. Not only was future Superman Henry Cavill deemed too old to play Edward by the time Twilight began filming, but future Evil Dead star Shiloh Fernandez also missed out on starring as the dour, eternally teenaged Edward Cullen. Jackson Rathbone also lost out on the part, but did gain the favor of Meyers herself and got the consolation prize of playing Jasper Cullen in the Twilight adaptations.

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