The Twilight saga never quite justified Jacob and Renesmee’s ”imprinting” storyline, but actor Taylor Lautner is nonetheless right to say that the pair most likely stayed together judging by the franchise’s lore. There is a lot of creepiness hiding under the PG-rated surface of the Twilight saga. While the series seems to be a chaste love story with occasional moments of paranormal action, the Twilight movies and their source novels do feature some under-explored, unsettling weirdness.
For example, Edward Cullen’s canonical Twilight backstory reveals that he spent time as a murderous vampire serial killer, feeding off victims who he deemed morally irredeemable. This dark element of the character is left largely unaddressed in the Twilight movie adaptations, but makes Edward a creepier character in retrospect. Similarly, although the infamous “imprinting” scene between Jacob Black and Renesmee Cullen is weirder than series star Taylor Lautner thought, the actor is correct to note that it essentially binds the character to Jacob in her future.
In an interview for Breaking Dawn Part 2 around the time of the release, Lautner stated, "it’s important for me to keep in my mind that it’s as simple as a lifelong bond. It’s not nearly as creepy as everybody likes to joke," and then said he assumed that Jacob was “happy ever after with Renesmee because that’s where I left off.” The actor wasn’t necessarily on the money when he said that Jacob “imprinting” on the newborn Renesmee wasn’t creepy, as the plot point is still one of the most discomfiting ways that an author has ever closed off a love triangle. However, the Twilight saga’s ending leaves viewers in little doubt about Renesmee’s future and, for better or worse, Lautner is correct to note that she ends up with Jacob.
Why Jacob Imprinted On Renesmee
It is hard to see why Jacob imprints upon the newborn Renesmee in Breaking Dawn and the novel’s movie adaptation, although the twist appears to have been seen as the best way for the author/filmmakers to get around the Team Jacob/Team Edward divide. The Twilight saga attempted to justify Jacob’s failure to woo Bella by saying that he was really always after her unborn kid, meaning viewers who preferred Lautner's Jacob to Robert Pattinson’s vampire love interest weren’t left feeling like the former character lost. Of course, the plot device remains undeniably weird, despite Lautner playing down the link as a "lifetime bond,” instead of anything romantic.
However, the Twilight movies don’t seem to think so. While even a non-romantic dynamic is a strange one given Jacob's romantic subplot with Bella created his bond with Renesmee, the series doesn't establish Jacob and Renesmee's bond as familial in nature. Indeed, Jacob's joking question as to whether he should start calling Edward "dad" seems to suggest it may well be a romantic relationship when Renesmee gets older. As if to underline this, the only mention of Renesmee’s fate in the canonical Twilight guide states that she sees Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, and Emmett as her aunts and uncles, but doesn’t mention her viewing Jacob in similarly familial terms. The same guide does note that Renesmee enjoys hunting with Jacob, meaning Lautner’s assumption that the pair are destined to end up together in the world of the Twilight saga seems to be well grounded in the lore of the Twilight franchise. As such, Jacob and Renesmee’s fate appears to be exactly as Taylor Lautner said, according to the Twilight saga.